What I'm Looking Forward to in 2007

I have to start off by saying that there are still a chunk of books in my TBR pile published in 2006 that I look forward to getting to, including a trio I've mentioned before - the latest novels by David Long, Tom Drury and John McNally - these will be among the first things I read in 2007.

Getting to those books that will be published in 2007 - I'll begin with a non-fiction effort, Madison Smartt Bell's Toussaint Louverture:  A Biography (Pantheon, January).  I've enjoyed nearly everything Bell has ever written and the publication of this gives me the perfect excuse to go back and finally read his Haitian Trilogy to go along with the biography.

Another title due out in mid-January is Frank Turner Hollon's Blood & Circumstance (MacAdam/Cage).  I've already had the pleasure of reading this taut thriller.  Hollon, a lawyer, has found yet another way to write of a legal case, this time through sessions between an accused killer, and the psychologist assigned to determine his sanity.

Lastly, January brings us Giraffes (Atomic Quill Press), a story collection debut by Steven Gillis (my partner in Dzanc Books, but I was enjoying these stories long before that affiliation began). Steven rarely tries to tell a story in a similar manner to those he has previously told, and this, and some fine writing, makes for an excellent collection.

February brings some more titles to be excited about, beginning with Fieldwork from Mischa Berlinski (FSG).  The description is "A daring, spellbinding tale of anthropologists, missionaries, demon possession, sexual taboos, murder, and an obsessed young reporter named Mischa Berlinski."  Tough to pass that one up.

Then there's Patry Francis' The Liar's Diary (Dutton).  I've enjoyed every short story Francis has written that I've been able to track down and have full confidence that I'll enjoy her novel as well.

Next is Liesel Litzenburger's short story follow-up to her debut novel (The Widower), Now You Love Me (Three Rivers Press).  A collection of stories set in my own home state, and by an extremely talented writer (side admission - Liesel and I shared a class at UM a few years back, but trust me, she's an incredible writer).

Another one due in February comes translated from the Finnish via Dalkey Archive.  It's Rosa Liksom's story collection, Dark Paradise.  I have a hard time passing up a book described as " ... populates a world of snow-covered landscapes, antiseptic apartments, fish factories and lumber camps ... the violent, and the unhinged."

March brings what sadly will be the last title from Larry Brown, A Miracle of Catfish (Algonquin), as it's being released posthumously.  Having loved his previous work, I greatly look forward to reading the ARC I currently believe is sitting on my couch.

Then comes Alain Mabanckou's African Psycho (Soft Skull Press), translated from the French by Christine Schwartz Hartley.  "A neurotic would-be serial killer relates a litany of incompetent criminal acts life as he plans what is to be his culminating crime, the murder of his girlfriend."  it is the English debut of this award winning writer.

LSU Press will publish Julianna Baggott's third collection of poetry, Compulsions of Silk Worms and Bees:  Poems, in March.  I've enjoyed the first two collections she published quite a bit, and haven't read a bad collection from LSU yet either.

All Will be Revealed (MacAdam/Cage) by Robert Anthony Siegel is another good looking one, at least I'm taking the word of M/C publicist, Julie Burton, on this.  She's rarely been wrong in her estimation of my taste when it comes to their books these past three or four years, so I'm taking a copy.

March also sees two returns.  First up is the return of an author, Tom Bissell, who authored one of my favorite 2005 efforts, God Lives in St. Petersburg.  This time around he returns to non-fiction with The Father of All Things:  A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam (Pantheon).  I've read two or three excerpts from this in Harper's and the like, and they've been incredible.

The other return is of a book - Brad Vice's The Bear Bryant Funeral Train (River City Publishing).  Readers of this blog may recall the title as it was a Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award winner two years back but was pulped due to allegations of plagiarism.  River City has done their due diligence in respect to the matter and determined that the book was deserving of a second chance, and it will be coming out in a slightly different form - more like Brad's now well-seen dissertation, as well as having many essays as extra material - almost like a director's cut movie release.

April brings a sextet to my interest table.  First up is Of Song and Water (Archipelago) by Joseph Coulson.  Set along the Great Lakes and in Chicago jazz bars, it's description mentions pirates, love, jazz, affairs, and hidden truths.

The University of Nebraska Press is well known for having an outstanding selection of baseball books, both fiction and non.  This time around is an anthology, edited by Philip F. Deaver, of baseball related writings:  Scoring from Second:  Writers on Baseball.  It also has a forward by Lee K. Abbott, and work by both Kyle Minor and Rachael Perry inside as well.

OV Books is publishing their annual title, this time around O Street by Corinna Wycoff.  If this story collection is half as good as last year's Simplify by Tod Goldberg, OV will have begun a really nice tradition.

Local publisher, Marick Press, will be bringing out Kawita Kandpal's Folding a River.  I've been able to find some of Kandpal's work and enjoyed it quite a bit.  And Marick's last few books (Fanning, Hart III, Maun) have been excellent.

After 30 years of publishing stellar poetry, BOA Editions will publish their first work of fiction.  Anthony Tognazzini's I Carry A Hammer In My Pocket For Occasions Such As These.  The few that I've peeked at in this one remind me a great deal of Jeff Parker's shorter efforts, which I love.  That sounds good enough to me.

And one of my more reliable publishers the past two years, Coffee House Press, suggests I might be interested in a final April work, The Last Communist Virgin, a story collection by Wang Ping.  She's supposed to have done an outstanding and far-reaching job of putting together this collection.

May starts off with another CHP title, Yuko Taniguchi's The Ocean in the Closet.  It's a multi-generational tale that also deals with war and various nationalities.  These last two both sounded interesting to me, and the fact that Molly at CHP is suggesting them just ratchets up that interest level for me.

The rest of May is busy as well - Ron Rash has a new story collection, Chemistry and Other Stories (Picador USA), coming out on the first.  Rash is just a writer I plan on buying everything he writes, the day it comes out, until I can no longer see well enough to read.  Novels, stories and poems - he does it all and all of it incredibly well.

That first week of May also sees the return of another EWN favorite, Alyson Hagy (another side note - Alyson taught the class Liesel and I shared at UM).  Her second novel, Snow, Ashes, is due out from Graywolf Press.  I was fortunate enough to be able to share a small section of this novel in last year's Holiday Gift Email and thought it was excellent.

SMU Press begins their Spring catalogue with Ann Harleman's second story collection, Thoreau's Laundry.  Her first collection won the Iowa Short Fiction Award and she's published the novel, Bitter Lake, also with SMU.

The end of May sees another couple of story collections:  Algonquin will be publishing Manuel Munoz's The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue, and MacAdam/Cage finds itself putting out Jack Pendarvis' second collection of stories, Your Body is Changing.  Both look very promising.

June brings another quintet of titles - the first two are both from SMU Press:  Sam Michel's novel, Big Dogs and Flyboys, which deals with love, loss and betrayal both within and between families and friends, with an Air Force setting.  Next is Kate Blackwell's story collection, You Won't Remember This.  The blurbs tend to mention secrets which are always interesting when written about with any skill.

Another story collection due in June is The Collected Stories of Leonard Michels (FSG).  The fact that Charles Baxter says "Anyone concerned with the American short story should read and know these stories" is enough for me to garner some interest.

Earlier I mentioned a young writer reminded me of Jeff Parker's short fiction.  Well Jeff will see his debut novel, Ovenman, published by Tin House, and it's one of the books I promise myself right now, that I will drop whatever I'm in the middle of and read it when it first appears.

Lastly in June, Laura Benedict's debut novel, Isabella Moon, will be released by Ballantine Books.  I'm going on the word of a single man on this one, but he's one whose taste I trust.

A few titles listed strictly as Spring/Summer, and not done up by month that should be included would be:  M. Allen Cunningham's Lost Son (Unbridled Books) - his debut a year ago or so was incredible;  Timothy Schaffert's Devils in the Sugar Shop (Unbridled Books) - a trade paperback described as "a comical whirlwind of deception, adultery, desperation, drag queens, stiff cocktails, nervous breakdowns, an anonymous stalker, and suburban swingers"; and Lynn Stegner's Because a Fire Was in My Head (University of Nebraska Press), which was suggested to me because it is a dark read.

July has me interested in a couple more translated works - Soft Skull Press brings out Asli Erdogan's The City in Crimson Cloak, which has been translated from the Turkish.  She is considered one of her country's most challenging authors, who also abandoned a scientific (physicist) career for her current literary one.  She won the Deutsche Wells Prize in 1997 for a short story.  Lire has named her one of the top 50 writers to watch out for in the 21th century.

The other comes from Archipelago - it is Spring Tales by Jacques Poulin, translated from the French.  It involves a translator of comics living alone on an island that suddenly become inhabited by his boxx and some companions.

August will see the long awaited memoir from Felicia Sullivan, The Sky Isn't Visible From Here (Algonquin).  I've read excerpts, blog poss, and had conversations about this with Felicia - it should be great!

Some other titles for the Fall, where I do not have specific months detailed yet include:  Winter of Different Directions by Steven J McDermott (not sure on publisher yet, and in fact it might by POD, but if it is, it will be the first POD I plan on paying for;  Pinckney Benedict's second novel (Nan Talese), and first book in just over a decade;  The Annotated Nose by Marc Estrin (Unbridled Books) - he hasn't disappointed me yet.

There will also be Benjamin Percy's second story collection, Refresh, Refresh (Graywolf Press), not to mention Surreal South - an anthology of short stories Pinckney and Laura Benedict are co-editing from a new Indie Press called Press 53 (www.press53.com/lulu).

Last up, the one book I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT WAIT TO SEE IN PRINT???  Roy Kesey's All Over, the Dzanc Books debut title.  i've read this one five or six times and it hasn't lost any of it's voice or excitement level for me.  I'd suggest you pre-order a few copies of this one ASAP!!!

Comments

[Felicia]

Dan,
You've been so incredibly kind & supportive, thank YOU! for being amazing and awesome. Happy Holidays!
xoxoxo, f.

[John McNally]

In addition to Surreal South, Press 53 is publishing my wife Amy Knox Brown's first book in the fall, a collection of stories titled WHY WE ARE THE WAY WE ARE. I'll make sure you get a copy so that you can add it to your ever-growing pile of books.

[Alicia Gifford]

I, too, can't wait for Roy Kesey's book! And for God Is Dead by Ron Currie Jr., from Viking. Good stuff!

[patry]

I can only echo what Felicia said. Thanks so much, Dan!

[Julie Ann Shapiro]

All these books sound wonderful. I can't wait to read Roy Kesey's new book too!

I know 2007 is going to be a great literary year. I have some book news too! My novel, One Shoe Diaries, a story of love, lost shoes and whimsy will be serialized at Pulp Bits beginning mid January in 2007.