Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin

by Staff
From the May/June 2007 issue of
Poets & Writers Magazine

I came from a place with a hole in it, / my body once its body, behind a beard of hair." Blackbird and Wolf (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, April 2007) by Henri Cole. Sixth book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Jonathan Galassi. Publicist: Audrey Harris.

"Once when no one was buying my cartoons I took a job ripping off the Tom of Finland books for an unscrupulous pirate publisher of gay eroticism." Kalooki Nights (Simon & Schuster, April 2007) by Howard Jacobson. Thirteenth book, ninth novel. Agent: George Lucas. Editor: Sarah Hochman. Publicist: Brian Ulicky.

"There was a lump / in the landscape // tho it had no throat / it spoke to those who // got on their knees / to listen to it" Citizen Of (Wave Books, April 2007) by Christian Hawkey. Second book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Matthew Zapruder. Publicist: Monica Fambrough.

"Everybody died at night." The Pesthouse (Nan A. Talese, May 2007) by Jim Crace. Tenth book, ninth novel. Agent: David Godwin. Editor: Nan A. Talese. Publicist: Nicole Dewey.

"Because they were boys, no one believed them, including the old men who gathered each morning at the Riverside Gas and Grocery." Chemistry and Other Stories (Picador, May 2007) by Ron Rash. Ninth book, fourth story collection. Agent: Marly Rusoff. Editor: Sam Douglas. Publicist: James Meader.

"Wallace Boyer (Car Salesman): Like most people, I didn't meet and talk to Rant Casey until after he was dead." Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey (Doubleday, May 2007) by Chuck Palahniuk. Tenth book, eighth novel. Agent: Edward Hibbert. Editor: Gerald Howard. Publicist: Todd Doughty.

"There was a droning behind everything, a faint throb as if the autumn morning had a small engine inside it." Patient 002 (Rager Media, April 2007) by Floyd Skloot. Twelfth book, second novel. Agent: Andrew Blauner. Editor: Chris White. Publicist: Rick Palumbo.

"Mariam was five years old the first time she heard the word harami." A Thousand Splendid Suns (Riverhead Books, May 2007) by Khaled Hosseini. Second book, novel. Agent: Elaine Koster. Editor: Sarah McGrath. Publicist: Mih-Ho Cha.

"(A) Is this war / is this a slow burn / are these rotor-blades that savage / the air rarefied and a thudding rhythm / a riotous array of tensions ingrained and bodies' imaginary / light strained through winter inversions" In the Archives (Omnidawn Publishing, April 2007) by Christopher Arigo. Second book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Rusty Morrison. Publicist: Ken Keegan.

"Nine months Landsman's been flopping at the Hotel Zamenhof without any of his fellow residents managing to get themselves murdered." The Yiddish Policemen's Union (HarperCollins, May 2007) by Michael Chabon. Eighth book, seventh novel. Agent: Mary Evans. Editor: Jennifer Barth. Publicist: Michael McKenzie.

"A letter is holy." Music for Landing Planes By (Milkweed Editions, March 2007) by Éireann Lorsung. First book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Daniel Slager. Publicist: Emily Cook.

"Eyes mark the shape of the city." After Dark (Knopf, May 2007) by Haruki Murakami. Thirteenth book, eleventh novel. Agent: Amanda Urban. Editor: Gary Fisketjon. Publicist: Gabrielle Brooks.