Sarah Braunstein's short story "All You Have to Do" is featured in this week's New Yorker

"It was 1972 and Sid Baumwell was hungry. For the salt at the bottom of the pretzel dish, for frozen Mars bars, for appreciation from someone who wasn’t a blood relation—preferably a girl with pink cheeks and big sleepy eyes, like the one in “The Graduate,” his second-favorite movie of all time. He could do two dozen pull-ups. No acne. He wasn’t truly handsome but not bad-looking—handsome enough, he felt, to deserve his hunger. Freckles across the bridge of his nose, slightly splayed feet, respectable height. Smart. He knew this. His teachers told him so when they pulled him aside to say that he wasn’t working up to his potential. He had potential, and this mattered more than grades, comforted him more than any A."

Read more.

Ottessa Moshfegh’s Eileen is selected for the BookExpo America Editors’ Buzz Panel

Three different committees of booksellers, librarians, and other industry professionals have reviewed the final titles for the 2015 BookExpo America Editors’ Buzz Panel, and after a two and a half month long intensive process, we are thrilled to see that Ottessa Moshfegh’s Eileen has been selected.

See the full list here.

Molly Antopol is a finalist for the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award

Established in 2001, The New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award annually honors the work of one young writer, under the age of 35, with a $10,000 prize. We're so excited that Molly Antopol, for her story collection The UnAmericans, has been named one of five finalists for the 2015 award.

See the full list here.

Akhil Sharma's Family Life is shortlisted for the Folio Prize

We’re thrilled to see that Akhil Sharma’s Family Life has been shortlisted for the Folio Prize. 

Announcing the shortlist at the British Library, Chair of Judges William Fiennes, said:

“This shortlist is the result of months of reading and hours of passionate conversation. The eight books we’ve chosen explore vast themes – time, loss, belonging, war, solitude, marriage and family, the making and the mystery of art – with amazing vitality and grace.

“They manage to be both epic and intimate – in fact, they show those dimensions to be two sides of the same coin. They’ve surprised, moved, challenged and enchanted us. They’ve made us laugh. They’ve grown and deepened when we read them again.”

See the full shortlist here.

The UnAmericans is selected as one of three fiction finalists for the B&N Discover Great New Writers Award

Barnes & Noble has revealed the six finalists for its 2014 Discover Great New Writers Awards, and we’re so happy to see that Molly Antopol is one of the three finalists for fiction. The program, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, recognizes great fiction and nonfiction debuts from authors at the start of their careers.

See the full list of finalists here. 

Christopher Bollen takes on the North Fork of Long Island

"Artists, collectors, curators and gallerists with homes on the East End of Long Island are sure to be scanning a new murder mystery next summer to see if they get bumped off.

Christopher Bollen, former editor-in-chief of Interview magazine, has written, 'Orient,' set in the same North Fork town where real-life residents include artists Rob Pruitt, Elizabeth Peyton, Lisa Yuskavage, Wade Guyton, T. J. Wilcox and Kelley Walker.

'People will see themselves in some of the characters,' warns Bollen, who hatched the plot while staying an artist’s home in the titular town. 'There’s the Russian collector, the Swiss gallerist and the crazy older photographer.'"

- Page Six

Read the full article here.

It's Tiny's turn to shine in a new book by David Levithan

“If you couldn’t get enough of big gay hero Tiny Cooper in “Will Grayson, Will Grayson,” then gird your loins and warm up your vocal chords: He’s back, in an amazing musical companion novel! “Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story” is David Levithan’s own enthusiastic followup to the book he co-wrote with John Green, in which Tiny gets his long-awaited and much-deserved turn in the spotlight. And while it won’t be on shelves until March 2015, we’ve got an exclusive first peek at its beautiful cover, which is decorated with some very holiday season-appropriate sparkle.

MTV News got in touch with Levithan to get some scoop about the “Tiny Cooper” cover, and the story behind it.”

– MTV News

Read more… 

We Are Not Ourselves is one of Entertainment Weekly’s 10 Best Fiction Books of the Year

“Ten years in the making, Thomas' epic debut traces three generations of Irish-Americans living in New York, all driven by the goal of doing better than their parents—and making sure their children do better than they have. It's a wrenching meditation on the limits of the American dream for immigrants and the working class during the 20th century. But it's also just a gripping family drama. Be prepared to ugly-cry at the end.”

– Entertainment Weekly

See Entertainment Weekly’s 10 Best Fiction Books of the Year.

Akhil Sharma’s Family Life is one The New York Times 10 Best Books of The Year

“Sharma’s austere but moving novel tells the semi-autobiographical story of a family that immigrates from India to Queens, and has just begun to build a new life when the elder son suffers severe brain damage in a swimming pool accident. Deeply unnerving and gorgeously tender, the book chronicles how grief renders the parents unable to cherish and raise their other son; love, it suggests, becomes warped and jagged and even seemingly vanishes in the midst of mourning.”

– New York Times

See The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year.