Write or Die's Staff Book Picks of 2022
We welcomed so many new writers to our team this year and as per our tradition, we asked our contributors to share what they loved reading this year.
Heartbroke by Chelsea Bieker
Chelsea Bieker writes with the deft, sleight of hand of a magician - it's impossible to unravel the mystery of how the ideas sparked inside her genius mind flow lyrically onto the page. And not since Mary Gaitskill has a writer made us look so closely, almost to the point of discomfort, at the darker corners within our psyches. I could only read a story per day of Heartbroke because I needed to stop and catch my breath after each one.
Other Women by Nicola Maye Goldberg
I can't believe I lived this long without having had the pleasure of discovering Nicola Maye Goldberg's writing. Other Women was rereleased by Witch Craft Magazine this past fall and it is a dream. It closely examines the roles we play in our relationships - mothers and daughters, friends, lovers and gives the reader that visceral, sweet ache of loving someone who doesn't love you the way you need them to. Just gorgeous.
Bad Thoughts by Nada Alic
Nada Alic's debut collection, Bad Thoughts is a hilarious, beautiful and often poignant masterpiece. Nada explores the less glamorous, sometimes mundane scenes from aspects of life that are sometimes, well, glamorized - falling in love for keeps, life as a young person in a cool city, and carving your path as an artist. She finds humor and truth in small moments, but never veers into snark, giving us glimpses of hope and beauty in a time when the world seems heavy with ennui. I'm so happy her writing exists.
read our interview with Nada here
Tell Me I’m An Artist by Chelsea Martin
Chelsea Martin’sTell Me I’m An Artist follows Joey as she tries to navigate art school’s intense social stratification, female friendships, mothers, sisters and the wide gulfs between the haves and have-nots in America, all while trying to find her own identity as an artist. Chelsea writes with wry observational humor about both her internal and external worlds in a way that is deeply warm, relatable and utterly hilarious. Tell Me I’m An Artist is a campus novel of sorts, but an art school campus - a place many readers have never had the pleasure of visiting. And it’s such a fun place to visit when the reader gets to do it through Chelsea’s brilliant writing.
read our interview with Chelsea here
Erica Abbott
Killing It by Gaia Rajan
Gaia Rajan’s chapbook, while brief, has remained one of my favorite reads of the year from the moment I finished the last poem. The collection is filled with haunting, visceral images and storytelling that holds you in its universe without letting go. I can’t wait to see what Rajan does next.
Read our interview with Rajan here
How to Make Pancakes for a Dead Boy by Joan Kwon Glass
This chapbook is as shattering as it is heartbreakingly beautiful. In this collection from Joan Kwon Glass, who also released her debut full-length poetry collection Night Swim this year, the reader is taken through layers of grief and tragedy following the loss of a loved one to suicide. While difficult, it is an absolutely necessary read and one I will certainly return to again.
Read the title poem from the collection here.
50 Things Kate Bush Taught Me About the Multiverse by Karyna McGlynn
Having finished reading this poetry collection shortly after the release of the latest season of Stranger Things (which, of course, sent a certain Kate Bush song soaring in popularity), this book grabbed me from the very first poem and held on long past the final page. Karyna McGlynn’s eccentric and out-of-this-world poems made for a fun, fierce read and I’m ready to dive in and devour them again.
Read a poem from the collection here
Rise and Float by Brian Tierney
The poems in this collection are simply stunning. The book is a must-read and Brian Tierney’s poems paint a picture you can’t help but look at for hours on end. I look forward to re-reading it and seeing what new things are to be discovered the second time around.
Read a poem from the collection here.
Kathy Curto
The Arsonists’ City by Hala Aylan
This one had my heart. I am a sucker for a complex family story and The Arsonists’ City is that. And more. There is deep deep resentment, there is deep deep love, there is deep deep wonder. What lives and breathes in the sentences Hala Alyan crafts is mysterious and beautiful. Speaking of beautiful mystery, poetry has a home here in this novel, guiding the story in gentle and fierce ways. A beauty of a book.
Just Breathe by B. Lynn Carter
Just Breathe is a debut novel by B. Lynn Carter with rich dialogue, surprising turns and characters whose lives intersect in matters of the heart, body and soul. An added plus: the iconic music of the time permeates this story. Think: Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson. This is a story for the senses and one that serves as a reminder of just how far some really come, when they come of age.
Close-Up by Michelle Herman
With wit, intelligence and a unique variety of warmth and humor, Close-Up shares with us characters who are masterfully imagined and brought to life by Michelle Herman. The prose that shimmers and dances. I don’t know the last time I read a family story like this one-crisp, hilarious and tender.
Now Lila Knows by Elizabeth Nunez
I fell deep, hard and fast into this book. The very first sentence slices clean and that energy continues throughout the entire story. I am amazed at Elizabeth Nunez’s capacity to paint for the reader not only Lila’s personal and political lives but her literary life, too.
Samantha Kauffman
All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers
Like many podcast consumers of our generation, I’m a big fan of the true crime genre. I’m pretty particular when it comes to podcasts I listen to – I prefer the ones that aim to make a difference, not the ones that tell a story for the sake of telling a story. Enter Ashley Flowers. I started listening to Crime Junkie pretty much since its birth and have been an avid listener and fan ever since. That’s a pretty long way of me saying that I stan Ashley and was so excited for her to venture into the fiction world. Ashley is a natural-born storyteller and her debut novel was filled with twists and turns that kept me guessing. If you’re into crime and mysteries, you’ll definitely enjoy AGPH!
One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
You know how when you read a good book, it’s like you escape your mind and venture into this whole new world? That’s 100% true – and then some – with One Italian Summer. I went into this without really knowing the plotline, and I’m glad I did. It’s a very solid combination of fantasy and reality, with both elements being entirely relatable. It’s about a girl named Katy who loses her mother/best friend. She’s undoubtedly devastated but decides to go on a trip to Italy that was originally supposed to be a mother-daughter trip. While she’s there, she meets a familiar woman – her mom, decades earlier. They get to bond and get to know one another, Katy getting an opportunity she thought she never would again. It’s very emotional, so have some tissues handy. Additionally, Serle does a phenomenal job illustrating the Italian scenery and, as a reader, you can practically smell the breeze coming off the sea and taste the spaghetti. Speaking of, does anyone want to go to Italy with me?
Enough Already by Valerie Bertinelli
I’ve always been a fan of Valerie Bertinelli – I think my dad may have had a crush on her before I was born, so maybe it’s in my blood. I’ve followed her on Instagram for years and always think that she’s just so… real. Her most recent memoir backs up that theory again and again and again. Bertinelli wrote this book to show readers how she got to this point in her life, emotionally, mentally, and physically. She gives great advice, shares intimate stories, and reminds us that we’re all human. P.S. I listened to this one on Audible because Bertinelli is the reader. You can hear her raw emotion and vulnerability in each sentence and it is just wonderful.
Shelby Hinte
Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos
I am a sucker for a good craft book, but I was especially drawn to Body Work (Catapult Books) by Melissa Febos after hearing her 2021 interview on the Otherppl Podcast. Unlike everyone else I know, I hadn’t actually yet been introduced to the brilliance of Melissa Febos when I listened to the interview. In the interview, Febos discussed her very involved morning routine, which sounded a lot like what I was trying to make my own (a sort of sacred space where the creative and spiritual selves meet). She also addressed the guilt and sense of selfishness some writers (especially women) feel around prioritizing their art which was something I related to and was trying to outgrow. She posited that writing and caring for oneself weren’t actually selfish acts, but instead suggested that they are necessary for engaging in the world in a compassionate way. In the interview she mentioned her forthcoming craft book Body Work (Catapult Books) and I was so moved by the way she perceived her own writing process that I pre-ordered it immediately. It didn’t disappoint and it has quickly become a book I regularly recommend to students and friends. It is described as both a memoir and a master class, but more importantly it feels like a book that gives permission to writers who have ever wondered does my story even matter? Body Work is a different take on the “craft book” and it not only provides useful information for writers and writing teachers, but it also works to dismantle many of the modes of thought (whether they be political, personal, cultural, or otherwise) that stand between writers and their writing.
Tomorrow in Shanghai and Other Stories by May-lee Chai
I’ve been eager for another book from May-lee Chai ever since I finished reading her last collection Useful Phrases for Immigrants (Blair, 2018). Her newest collection, Tomorrow in Shanghai, was well worth the wait! Tomorrow in Shanghai (Blair) is comprised of eight stories following various characters from the Chinese diaspora living in America as they look for ways to belong —to a family, to a lover, to a culture, to a country. As the characters navigate where they belong, they are confronted with racism and prejudice on both micro and macro levels (from their communities, from society, and from within their very own homes). Young mixed-race children are ostracized by their white midwestern community, a Chinese father is the punchline to racist jokes at a dinner party, a white mother doesn’t correct her friends when they assume her half-Chinese daughter is an adoptee. While there is no shortage of suffering in this collection, the book never feels bleak. In my favorite story of the collection, “Jia,” May-lee writes, “In Chinese the word for family and the word for home were the same: 家 (jiā),” and Tomorrow in Shanghai is truly a meditation on what it means to yearn for a place to call home.
Read our interview with May-lee here
Tell Me I’m An Artist by Chelsea Martin
Tell Me I’m an Artist is a modern-day Künstlerroman of a young artist trying to find her place at the expensive Bay Area art school she attends where she is surrounded by peers from wildly different backgrounds than herself. Joey doesn’t exactly come from a privileged upbringing, but despite her financial insecurity, she is keenly aware of the privilege that comes with getting to choose to be an artist (a truth that weighs heavy on her throughout the book). Set during a single semester of college, Tell Me I’m an Artist follows Joey as she works to complete a self-portrait film assignment while things back home seemingly fall apart. The pull of where she is from and where she hopes to go lead to questions of privilege, ambition, and the absurdity of human existence in general. Chelsea Martin’s book is an honest, self-aware, and moving portrayal of the conflicts artists face when they choose to think deeply about their relation to others and to the world. It is one of the best books I’ve read about art-making in recent years, and while it pokes fun at the ridiculousness of the art-world, it never comes off as believing it is better than the world in which it exists.
Brittany Ackerman
Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh
I've been a longtime fan girl of Ottessa Moshfegh, but Lapvona is on a whole level of its own. Until I read it, my favorite work of Moshfegh was McGlue, her debut novella, essentially an inebriated sailor's descent into hell after being accused of a murder. I loved the book for its grit, its grotesque honesty, its humanity. Her newest novel Lapvona feels like a long lost relative to the novella. The book slips in and out of various character's point of views allowing for the character's actions and reactions to speak for themselves rather than a narration guiding the reader. I felt thrust on this wild ride of medieval games and torture, not the only dichotomies of the novel. Abundance and famine, wealth and poverty, a king and his kingdom, sight and blindness, higher powers at be and meaninglessness, God and godlessness. Lapvona presents many different ways of life and belief systems and doesn't ask the reader to choose or decide what's right, but insteads showcases characters in their truths and lies. There's also milk and magic among other mysteries.
Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson
I interviewed Kevin Wilson for his latest novel, Now Is Not the Time to Panic, and was lucky enough to see him read from the book and speak about his writing process recently at Parnassus in his home state of Tennessee. This book is a triumph and what I believe to be his best novel yet. I first came to love Wilson's work through his short stories, namely his collection Tunneling to the Center of the Earth. I connected with the sense of listlessness and dread the characters had as they lived between one stage of life and the next, as I myself was fresh out of graduate school and deciding what to do with my life. In this latest work, I feel that Wilson has truly captured what it means to be an artist, the power of writing and art and creating something that comes from inside your head and deep inside your heart and bringing it into the world, letting it have a life of its own and watching as it lives on. I felt so close to the protagonist, Frankie; all her fears, her insecurities, her strengths, her bravery, her wit, her honesty, her willingness to go on. I'm so excited for people to read this one-- mandatory required reading for all artists!
Read our interview with Kevin here
Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan
Now that I've completed Kathryn Scanlan's holy trinity (Aug-9 Fog, The Dominant Animal, & Kick the Latch), it is clear to see that each book is truly a standalone craft lesson akin to an art piece. Kick the Latch tells one horse trainer's story all the way through following her years spent at the racetrack. Scanlan beautifully captures the language of horse racing and jockeys and groomers and puts readers right alongside Sonia, a horse trainer, and the vivid cast of characters that permeate her life. Some pages, albeit only a paragraph or a few sentences long, broke my heart. Scanlan is a master of the sentence; she chisels each word and sculpts the work delicately and deliberately. The book is utterly atmospheric and one I feel grateful to have lived inside of for a while.
Kailey Brennan DelloRusso
Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang
Set in the 1880s American West, Jenny Tinghui Zhang’s debut novel, Four Treasures of the Sky, is a story you won’t be able to put down or forget. Young Daiyu is kidnapped and smuggled from her home in China into America. In a fight for survival, we follow her from a San Fransico brothel to a shop in the Idaho mountains just as the Chinese Exclusion Act begins to take effect. Not only must Daiyu navigate a country she never asked to be a part of, but she must also do it as a wave of anti-Chinese violence rushes in. Zhang’s radiant prose mix with history, folklore, and magical realism to create an epic tale of longing, survival, family, and claiming your own story. I’m still thinking of Daiyu!
Check out our interview with Jenny here
Aesthetica by Allie Rowbottom
There is no surprise here since I’ve been posting about this book for awhile now. I was beyond excited to see such a buzz around this book, one I knew from the moment I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of was going to be a hit. How could it not? Allie tackles the beast of Instagram and social media with compassion while addressing the complexities of our relationship with it. There is no judgment of the platform or the image altering apps and plastic surgeries that are explored throughout the narrative. Instead, Allie, with clear yet emotionally packed prose, focuses more on the desire to be seen, that universal need we all find ourselves struggling to understand. Aesthetica is a novel unlike any other, one you will read obsessively.
Check out our interview with Allie here
The Vicious Circle by Katherine St. John
Katherine St. John’s latest novel, The Vicious Circle, takes place in the Mexican jungle in a wellness center called Xanadu, home to a group of devout followers of self-help guru Paul Bentzen. We follow his niece, Sveta, who much to her shock, has just been informed that she, not Paul’s wife, has been given his entire estate now that he is dead. Sveta travels from New York to Mexico to see this secluded paradise for herself. But soon, she discovers that the promise of utopia that Paul has left behind has shifted, guided by a disturbing belief system and a dangerous leader. Cult fans, get ready. I read this in a breathless few days. Seriously could not but it down!
Check out our interview with Katherine here
p.s I second many on this list, such as Heartbroke by Chelsea Bieker, Bad Thoughts by Nada Alic, Tell Me I’m an Artist by Chelsea Martin and Now is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson!
