In this Waterstones video, Sloane Crosley speaks about her second novel, Cult Classic (MCD, 2022), and offers her book recommendations, which include All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews and Loitering With Intent by Muriel Spark. For more from Crosley, read her installment of our Ten Questions series.

“The city erupts into a riot. The people chant, ‘Burn, baby, burn.’ The city is on fire.” In this video, A. G. Lombardo introduces his debut novel, Graffiti Palace (MCD Books, 2018), which is a retelling of The Odyssey set during the 1965 Watts riots in Los Angeles. Lombardo is featured in “5 Over 50” in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Mom always went up the mountain and down the valley so I decide that’s what we’ll do too.” Lydia Kiesling, a 2018 National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, reads from her debut novel, The Golden State (MCD, 2018), for the ZYZZYVA series at Green Apple Books on the Park in San Francisco.

“My life is kind of like a novel in interconnected stories.” Sloane Crosley recounts the different jobs she’s had that have shaped her storytelling for Xerox’s Set the Page Free series. Her third essay collection, Look Alive Out There (MCD, 2018), is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“In Borne I’m really talking about how we interact with wildlife and animals in an urban space...” Jeff VanderMeer visits the landscapes of northern Florida that inspired his novel Borne (MCD, 2017) and his novels from the Southern Reach Trilogy.