With so many good books being published every month, some literary titles worth exploring can get lost in the stacks. Page One offers the first lines of a dozen recently released books, including The Crane Wife: A Memoir of Essays by CJ Hauser and Gods of Want by K-Ming Chang.
“On June 23, 1626, a fishmonger of Cambridge market discovered a century-old manuscript in the belly of a codfish.” Voice of the Fish: A Lyric Essay (Graywolf Press, June 2022) by Lars Horn. First book, nonfiction. Agent: PJ Mark. Editor: Chantz Erolin. Publicist: Claudia Acevedo-Quiñones.
“There’s a fly in the house I can’t kill.” Human Resources (Milkweed Editions, June 2022) by Ryann Stevenson. First book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Daniel Slager. Publicist: Claire Laine.
“Cap Joyce was a cowboy who ran an Arizona dude ranch called the Spur Cross because acting like a cowboy, for tourists, was more lucrative than the actual herding of cattle.” The Crane Wife: A Memoir in Essays (Doubleday, July 2022) by CJ Hauser. Third book, first memoir in essays. Agent: Meredith Kaffel Simonoff. Editor: Lee Boudreaux. Publicist: Elena Hershey.
“My heart is a snack machine made of tin.” 1,000 Coils of Fear (Catapult, July 2022) by Olivia Wenzel, translated from the German by Priscilla Layne. First book, novel. Agent: Markus Hoffmann. Editor: Wah-Ming Chang. Publicist: Lena Moses-Schmitt.
“once, while on a coke binge, / and away from my mother, / my father drove his car / across the sand / and into the pacific ocean.” La Movida (Nightboat Books, July 2022) by Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta. Second book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Lindsey Boldt. Publicist: Caelan Ernest Nardone.
“We arrived at the resort in the afternoon when the sun was rising above the army of palm trees, lined and fanning in the breeze like windmills in the brightening orange and blue.” Harry Sylvester Bird (Mariner Books, July 2022) by Chinelo Okparanta. Third book, second novel. Agent: Jacqueline Ko. Editor: Rakia Clark. Publicist: Eliza Rosenberry.
“I had an aunt who went to the dentist and asked to get her tongue pulled.” Gods of Want (One World, July 2022) by K-Ming Chang. Second book, first story collection. Agent: Julia Kardon. Editor: Nicole Counts. Publicist: Carla Bruce.
“I grew up thinking I didn’t matter, that no one cared what I had to say.” Crying in the Bathroom (Viking, July 2022) by Erika L. Sánchez. Third book, first memoir. Agent: Michelle Brower. Editor: Emily Wunderlich. Publicist: Rebecca Marsh.
“My parents were married when they had me, just to different people.” Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional (Bloomsbury, July 2022) by Isaac Fitzgerald. Fourth book, first memoir. Agent: Meredith Kaffel Simonoff. Editor: Nancy Miller. Publicist: Tara Kennedy.
“The cake edges the counter / royal and layered / orange cream fondant // punctured / or slit with a knife / or peeled off exactly // white sugar circles / like a saint’s corona” Sugar Work (Alice James Books, June 2022) by Katie Marya. First book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Carey Salerno. Publicist: Sarah Cassavant.
“the lurid confessions of an ex-cake junky: ‘i blew it / all. blimped. i was really stupid. i waited / until i was forty to get hooked on white flour / and powdered sugar’” Heart First Into This Ruin: The Complete American Sonnets (Black Sparrow Press, June 2022) by the late Wanda Coleman. Nineteenth book, twelfth poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Joshua Bodwell. Publicist: Joshua Bodwell.
“Tae-woo stood on the ledge behind the Dora Observatory’s row of binoculars. No one paid him any mind since he was long dead.” Nuclear Family (Counterpoint, June 2022) by Joseph Han. First book, novel. Agent: Danielle Bukowski. Editor: Jenny Alton. Publicist: Megan Fishmann.
