With so many great books being published every month, some literary titles worth exploring can get lost in the mix. Page One offers the first lines of a dozen recently released books, including What I Made for Dinner by Krys Malcolm Belc and Ghost-Eye by Amitav Ghosh.
“There’s a little ramp up to the coops, giant green birdhouses made out of plywood, covered in whispers of chicken feathers and marbled speckles of poo.” Lucky Creatures (Sarabande Books, June 2026) by Joseph Trinidad. First book, essay collection. Agent: None. Editor: Katherine Webb-Hehn. Publicist: Michelle Malonzo.
“Picture this: an imposing, three-storey mansion on Calcutta’s tree-lined upscale Southern Avenue.” Ghost-Eye (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2026) by Amitav Ghosh. Twenty-second book, eleventh novel. Agent: Sarah Chalfant. Editor: Ian Van Wye. Publicists: Joshua Judd Porter and Stephen Weil.
“The ring wore my left hand for seventeen years, / the hand with no punch or penmanship, the one / glued to my hip through a handshake.” Stegosaurus Moon (Dzanc Books, June 2026) by Scott Beal. Fourth book, third poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Michelle Dotter. Publicist: Chelsea Gibbons.
“I took the job at the grief shop because no one else was hiring.” The Grief Shop: And Other Stories From a Broken World (Seven Stories Press, June 2026) by Alex DiFrancesco. Fifth book, second story collection. Agent: Natalie Kimber. Editor: Daniel Simon. Publicist: Irina Costache.
“Haven’t I been here before, / and didn’t I leave through the window?” If You Love That Lady (Norton, July 2026) by Maya C. Popa. Third book, poetry collection. Agent: Peter Straus. Editor: Jill Bialosky. Publicists: Eliana Brown and Anne Tate Pearce.
“During the early spring of 2015, I thought I was pregnant.” Tending to Our Wounds: A Diasporic Memoir (Haymarket Books, June 2026) by Edna Bonhomme. Second book, first memoir. Agent: Ian Bonaparte. Editor: Katy O’Donnell. Publicist: Michelle Betters.
“You watched your first deer die when you were six.” Scrap Book (Alice James Books, June 2026) by Nick Martino. First book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Carey Salerno. Publicist: Genevieve Hartman.
“It began simply, as my daily mandate: I was home with the kids, three of them, and so now was on the hook for feeding five people, but especially the children, those too young to purchase and prepare their own meals, every single day of my life.” What I Made for Dinner (Catapult, June 2026) by Krys Malcolm Belc. Second book, memoir. Agent: Ashley Lopez. Editor: Rob Shapiro. Publicist: Lena Moses-Schmitt.
“I remember the last time I saw Han.” Swell (Two Lines Press, June 2026) by Son Bo-mi, translated from the Korean by Janet Hong. Seventh book, fourth story collection. Agent: None. Editor: CJ Evans. Publicist: Karen Gu.
“If it means learning to wait without complaining, / It isn’t high on my list of virtues, / Though I’m trying to practice it now on my patio, / Reading under my linden tree to keep the promise / I made to my doctor not to put any weight / On the leg I broke till the bone has a chance to heal.” Earthly Virtues (Penguin Books, June 2026) by Carl Dennis. Sixteenth book, fifteenth poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Patrick Nolan. Publicist: Magdalena Deniz.
“A man, or something worse.” What Came West (Doubleday, June 2026) by Josh Weil. Fourth book, second novel. Agent: PJ Mark. Editor: Thomas Gebremedhin. Publicist: Elena Hershey.
“your grandfather worked twenty-five years as a porter for the Great Northern Railroad and when he retired all they gave him was a pen with the number twenty-five on it.” Without Terminus (Graywolf Press, June 2026) by chaun webster. Third book, first nonfiction. Agent: None. Editors: Carmen Giménez and Anni Liu. Publicist: Claire Laine.
