Before tech took over San Francisco, before cellphones but after the terrible reign of AIDS, there were the gleeful revels of the ’90s. Tradowsky’s ornate novel is a love letter to a foggy, analog metropolis lit up with nightlife and art, queer friendship and desire, movie houses and day jobs, and 20-somethings aching to define […]
Invoking Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, O’Neill-Butler explores the subversive, surprising, and often brilliant tactics of artists fighting for social change. Ten case studies spanning five decades illustrate the original ways artists have demonstrated against unjust practices, “from protesting to philanthropy, and from wheat pasting to planting a field of wheat.” O’Neill-Butler, a former […]
Big is a dream who towers over all the other dreams in his town. In this story, they all have only two goals: to find their matching person and to help them realize their dream; when they’re successful, the dreams turn blue. As other, smaller dreams match up with their people, Big finds himself left […]
Fourteen-year-old Goff, having faced off against a dark wizard, is ready to enjoy his days at a boarding school. Elsewhere, his “magical friends from past adventures,” Bones and Maxim, find and inadvertently activate a Time Lock. Around the campus, Goff, his romantic interest, and his best friends all vanish with a “pop.” The story then […]
The candle burns over the next 24 hours while everyone shares stories about Grandpa, creating new memories as each reminiscence connects to an activity he used to enjoy. As the family members use a telescope to gaze at the night sky, the nameless young protagonist recalls Grandpa explaining how to find the constellation Orion; sitting […]
An introductory note makes clear that while Blake is drawn to pet themes and personally salient motifs, readers should expect to find neither thesis nor throughline connecting the vignettes ahead. Instead, the eight sections that follow are entirely unrelated to one another, each filled with images that invite onlookers to both occupy the world as […]
“Every Saturday, me and Mom bring Yaya a small box of dan-tats to share,” the young narrator informs readers. The child’s grandfather, who lives in a nursing home, uses a wheelchair and has memory issues. Though Yaya speaks only Chinese, the two bond over their love of egg tarts. But today, Yaya promptly takes the […]
The year is 1974, and Mike Turner is a 13-year-old boy living at Children’s Christian Hostel in Singapore. He spends his time going to school, putting up with his immature roommates, and most notably, awaiting his parents’ return from South Vietnam. However, during their time working in the Foreign Service, Mike’s parents suddenly go missing. […]
Opening and closing with scenes from a gig as a 33-year-old burlesque dancer, Campbell shows off her experience as a stand-up comic with a quip-laden narrative in which she chronicles both her youth as a picky eater from childhood through college and a yearslong, riotously contentious, on-again, off-again relationship with a sometimes pushy, sometimes disturbingly […]
In his debut memoir, the author, a former Arizona state representative, recounts the highlights and low points of an eventful life, including his wife Rhonda’s battle with breast cancer and his own nightmarish experience with Covid-19. Sierra describes himself as a classic “retail politician,” someone who regularly cuts ribbons or appears in parades. “I like […]