This will not be a complete list as a) I know there are books I have found out will publish next year that I've forgotten about and will re-stumble upon the information sometime soon--probably even minutes after hitting SEND on this post, b) there are books being published I've yet to hear about, c) I'm not including Dzanc titles, and d) there are already 112 short story collections planning on being published and I simply can't have a post THAT long.
Percival Everett's new novel, So Much Blue, comes out from
Graywolf this June. Those who have even dabbled reading here over the years know that he's one of my favorite, if not my favorite, writers. He's putting out about a book per year and not seeing any suffering in quality whatsoever. He's one that I don't bother reading what the novel is going to be about, I simply start begging publicists for a copy and pre-ordering a final copy as soon as I can.
February (I think) will see Robert Fanning's poetry collection, Our Sudden Museum, published in Ireland by Salmon Poetry. I've
enjoyed each of Robert's books, chapbooks, and even his online fun--and each title to date has been quite varied from the last. I look forward to seeing what he's been up to the last couple of years.
The Grip of It, Jac Jemc's second novel, comes via FSG Originals this August. I'm a long time fan of Jac's writing, and had a small hand in helping get her first two titles into the world. This one has a bit of a look of the eerie or spooky to it. The cover won't always come across on screen, but there are little ghost heads spread throughout!
FSG seems to have a stronghold recently on strong, slightly offbeat, female writers still pretty early in their career and to go along with that Jemc novel comes two more novels--Isadora from Amelia Gray in May and Eat Only When You're Happy from Lindsay Hunter in August. Both are follow-ups from debut novels published with FSG that were both excellently received critically and especially enjoyed by us here at the EWN.
April will bring us the latest Jeff VanderMeer novel, Borne. Coming after his Southern Reach Trilogy, Jeff is finally getting the type of pre-publication publicity he's deserving of and his name, books, and their amazing covers seem to be everywhere.
No cover yet for this one, but Liars by Steven Gillis will come out from Rare Bird Books in the fall in hardcover. I had the lovely opportunity to read this one in manuscript form and it's one that I started to read on a nice Saturday afternoon outside earlier this summer and around 12:30 a.m. found myself turning off my kindle and sitting there in the dark a good 20-30 minutes thinking about what I'd just read. There's plenty of time for you to go find Gillis' backlist and read it
before this one comes out and there's not a disappointment in the bunch.
Animals Strike Curious Poses is the latest essay collection from Elena Passarello and Sarabande has it coming out at the end of February and I cannot wait. Perhaps one of the few things better than reading this book would be listening to an audio of Ms. Passarello reading her work aloud as she is a fantastic performer of her essays.
Another author that can count on me reading his work no matter what the description from the publisher says is David Abrams. A great literary citizen, a wonderful writer with a lot to
say and one I can always point to as one I'm very proud to have been reading before he was a known commodity. His Brave Deeds comes from Grove!
A couple of titles that I've had review copies of for a while now that both come out in January--Pola Oloixarac's Savage Theories which was translated by Roy Kesey and will be published by Soho Press, and Robert Coover's Huck Out West, a re-imagining of Huck Finn's later years from an absolute master coming out from WW Norton. I've had a chance to spend a bit of time with both of these already and they are worth your pre-ordering time.
Another non-fiction writer I've always really enjoyed, especially when he delves into food related topics, is Michael Ruhlman. He has a new one titled Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America coming in May. This on the heels of his publishing a trio of novellas this year, his first foray into fiction between a pair of covers.
Another one I've had the pleasure of reading already--a few times--but anxiously await a final version to appear in April in hardcover from Pantheon is Kristen Radtke's graphic novel, Imagine Wanting Only This--trust me. Just trust me.
Bringing us to short story collections--as noted, over a hundred to be excited about and I'm going to point toward sixteen of them here:
The first 2017 title named by Dorothy: a Publishing Project (of which you know I look forward to, and will purchase, all four titles) is The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington. Between the fact that Dorothy is publishing it, and Jeff VanderMeer has blurbed it--I'm simply biding my time until the 2nd title is named and pre-orders are available at the publisher's website.
Elizabeth Crane returns to the form with Turf from Soft Skull come June--I cannot find a cover for this yet. I've enjoyed Ms. Crane's novels, but a fan of stories seems to love ssc's a little better for some reason. Glad she's returned.
Grove Press will be bringing out Roxane Gay's Difficult Women in January. Roxane is one I'll read in any format--novel, story, essay, and recently added, comic book! I don't read nearly as many journals as I used to an so tend to find most stories in these collections to be new to me--looking forward.
Publicist extraordinaire Caitlin Hamilton Summie's debut comes out from Fomite in June--To Lay to Rest Our Ghosts. EWN'ers will get a sneak preview shortly. I've only read a bit of Caitlin's fiction, but really liked what I have. No cover yet that I've found.
A New and Selected is typically something I find myself looking forward to. And when it's for Noy Holland, even moreso. I Was Trying to Describe What It Feels Like comes out from Counterpoint in January and it will be wonderful to see some of those older stories again as well as dig into some that are new.
The man that can make me both proud and disturbed with myself for knowing exactly who, what and why he's spoofing, mimicking, or satirizing them, Dave Housley, has another wonderful collection of stories titled Massive Cleansing Fire coming from Outpost19 in February and I cannot wait. He's a writer I'm very proud to have had a hand in bringing one collection to print and another rescued from the quiet in eBook form in the past.
I don't know that I've read a Samantha Hunt short story, but have loved her novels and so believe I'm going to dig the stories as well. The Dark Dark comes from FSG in July. No cover yet that I've tracked down.
Longtime EWN favorite Peter LaSalle has a new collection coming from Bellevue Literary Press in January titled Sleeping Mask. LaSalle's stories are what keeps drawing me back to his writing, though his novels and essays are both well worth your time as well.
Mary Miller has new fiction coming! Actually I have a copy of this already as it's due out in January from Liveright. A story collection titled Always Happy Hour. I greatly enjoyed Miller's novel, The Last Days of California, but have always LOVED her stories and from the bit I've dipped into this already, she's only improved.
I absolutely loved Glen Pourciau's last collection and so was thrilled to see that Four Way Books is publishing a new one this March titled View.
Bill Roorbach is another author that I've enjoyed in novel form, and non-fiction, but if I were to grab a book to re-read it would be his old short story collection. Fortunately though, Algonquin is letting me get the two for one of reading Roorbach in story form, and reading new work, with their June publishing of The Girl of the Lake.
Wayne State University's Made in Michigan Series has led me to some great story and poetry collections and I'm sure that April's States of Motion from Laura Hulthen Thomas is going to continue that tradition. Laura, a great teacher and promoter of fiction here in SE Michigan also has one of my favorite covers so far for 2017.
I was stunned to read that Wait 'Til You See Me Dance is the DEBUT collection of Deb Olin Unferth and I guess that's partially because it feels like I've been enjoying her work for a long and partially because she has had a novel and a chapbook of stories published. But no full-length collections seems unbelievable, but should lead to a lot of enjoyment this March (via Graywolf).
No cover yet, but Kellie Wells recently let it be known that she was the recipient of the Sullivan Award for Short Fiction from the University of Notre Dame Press and her collection, God, The Moon and Other Megafauna will be ANXIOUSLY awaited
here as her earlier Compression Scars is one of my five titles I'd take with me to a deserted island were I forced to go to one.
This is the painting that will be used for the cover, though it could still be tweaked a bit--Allen Wier has a New and Selected titled Late Night, Early Morning coming from LSU Press later this year and having just been delving into much of Allen's work recently, this is very good news for readers.
And Rachel Yoder has a collection with one bad ass cover, Infinite Things All at Once, coming from Curbside Splendor this August. A longtime fan of her writing, this is very exciting news.
So let's see, that's something like 29 titles, not to mention the other three books Dorothy will publish, plus everything Dzanc is publishing, plus the other nearly 100 short story collections I already KNOW about, and I think Mark Sarvas might have a novel coming and all the books I haven't found out about yet, not to mention comics and journals. It looks like 2017 should be a damn good reading year!
DAMN - I knew I'd forget one that I had written down--damn handwriting--EWN favorite BJ Hollars has a book entitled Flock Together: A Love Affair With Extinct Birds coming from the University of Nebraska Press that is excellent.
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