This is what happened." Triangle (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2006) by Katharine Weber. Fourth book, novel. Agent: Gloria Loomis. Editor: Sarah Crichton. Publicist: Elizabeth Garriga.
"I used to be pretentious; / then I grew simplistic." Best-Selling Jewish Porn Films (Turtle Point Press, April 2006) by Wayne Koestenbaum. Eleventh book, fifth poetry collection. Agent: Ira Silverberg. Editor: Jonathan Rabinowitz. Publicist: Christina Foxley.
"For anyone who met Meyer Anspach after his success, his occasional lyrical outbursts on the subject of his blue period may only be tedious, but for those of us who actually remember the ceaseless whine of paranoia that constituted his utterances at that time, Anspach's rhapsodies on the character-building properties of poverty are infuriating." The Unfinished Novel and Other Stories (Vintage Books, May 2006) by Valerie Martin. Eleventh book, third story collection. Agent: Nikki Smith. Editor: LuAnn Walther. Publicist: Sloane Crosley.
"When someone arrives suddenly, standing straight-backed on your front lawn in full military dress, not even bothering to ring the doorbell—just standing there squinting in the sun, waiting to be noticed—when someone arrives unannounced like this you can be sure he's come to change your life." Hello, I Must Be Going (W.W. Norton, May 2006) by Christie Hodgen. Second book, first novel. Agent: Christina Ward. Editor: Carol Houck Smith. Publicist: Adele McCarthy-Beauvais.
"Unslide the door, / uncap the lazy little coffee cup." Shake (Wave Books, April 2006) by Joshua Beckman. Fifth book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Matthew Zapruder. Publicist: Monica Fambrough.
"After her husband left her for some floozie who was supposed to be an executive secretary at the crummy half-assed company he'd worked at for years without a raise or even so much as a bottle of cheap whiskey at Christmas, she packed up a few things, took the girl, and moved in with her cousin Janet on Gerritsen Avenue." A Strange Commonplace (Coffee House Press, May 2006) by Gilbert Sorrentino. Thirty-first book, twentieth novel. Agent: Mel Berger. Editor: Chris Fischbach. Publicist: Lauren Snyder.
"At the Home I'd get up early, when the Sisters were still asleep, and head to the ancient Chinese man's store." The Dead Fish Museum (Knopf, April 2006) by Charles D'Ambrosio. Third book, second story collection. Agent: Mary Evans. Editor: Jordan Pavlin. Publicist: Sarah Robinson.
"I did not have a year in Provence or a villa under the Tuscan sun." Still Life With Chickens: Starting Over in a House by the Sea (Hudson Street Press, May 2006) by Catherine Goldhammer. First book, memoir. Agent: Liv Blumer. Editor: Laureen Rowland. Publicist: Liz Keenan.
"For forty-three years, the one-and-a-half centimeter berrylike sac has been nestled in Samantha Hennart's brain, like an exclamation point curled into a comma waiting for the end of the sentence." Genealogy (HarperPerennial, May 2006) by Maud Casey. Third book, second novel. Agent: Alice Tasman. Editor: Jennifer Pooley. Publicist: Ben Bruton.
"Dennis Hurt was perhaps not classically handsome." Visigoth (Milkweed Editions, April 2006) by Gary Amdahl. First book, story collection. Agent: Elise Proulx. Editor: Ben Barnhart. Publicist: Emily Cook.
"I slam earth again and again, / and again and again." Circumstances Beyond Our Control (Johns Hopkins University Press, April 2006) by Robert Phillips. Eighth book, seventh poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: John T. Irwin. Publicist: Christina Cheakalos.
"Music: Sexual misery is wearing you out." The Totality for Kids (University of California Press, April 2006) by Joshua Clover. Third book, second poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Laura Cerruti. Publicist: Lorraine Weston.
