First, the facts." Bridge of Sighs (Knopf, October 2007) by Richard Russo. Seventh book, sixth novel. Agent: Nat Sobel. Editor: Gary Fisketjon. Publicist: Gabrielle Brooks.
"The ham flowers have veins and are rimmed in rind, each petal a little meat sunset." Modern Life (Graywolf Press, October 2007) by Matthea Harvey. Fourth book, third poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Jeffrey Shotts. Publicist: Mary Matze.
"In the long winter nights, a farmer's dreams are narrow." Time and Materials (Ecco, October 2007) by Robert Hass. Seventh book, fifth poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Daniel Halpern. Publicist: Michael McKenzie.
"As I write this, I have a beard that makes me resemble Moses." The Year of Living Biblically (Simon & Schuster, October 2007) by A. J. Jacobs. Third book, creative nonfiction. Agent: Joan Harris. Editor: Marysue Rucci. Publicist: Julia Prosser.
"A human being can't compare / size and brightness // on two occasions." The Bad Wife Handbook (Wesleyan University Press, November 2007) by Rachel Zucker. Third book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Suzanne Tamminen. Publicist: Stephanie Elliott.
"And what, friends, is called a road?" Rhode Island Notebook (Dalkey Archive, November 2007) by Gabriel Gudding. Second book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: John O'Brien. Publicist: Martin Riker.
"If you look closely at a detailed map of Iraq, you'll find somewhere to the south, between the western shelf and the equally monotonous eastern plain, the province of Assama, a flat depression in the shape of a chicken." Bowl of Cherries (McSweeney's Books, October 2007) by Millard Kaufman. First book, novel. Agent: None. Editors: Jordan Bass, Eli Horowitz. Publicist: Angela Petrella.
"For numberless years a myna had astounded travelers to the caravansary with its ability to spew indecencies in ten languages, and before the fight broke out everyone assumed the old blue-tongued devil on its perch by the fireplace was the one who maligned the giant African with such foulness and verve." Gentlemen of the Road (Del Rey, October 2007) by Michael Chabon. Ninth book, eighth novel. Agent: Mary Evans. Editor: Betsy Mitchell. Publicist: David Moench.
"At Robben Island the political prisoners studied." Gulf Music (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, November 2007) by Robert Pinsky. Eleventh book, seventh poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Jonathan Galassi. Publicist: Stephen Weil.
"Sing, goddess, the brilliance of Perpetua, who came then to lend her salt-sweet God-gift beauty to the film." Flying to America: 45 More Stories (Shoemaker and Hoard, November 2007) by Donald Barthelme. Seventeenth book, thirteenth story collection. Agent: Jin Auh. Editor: Jack Shoemaker. Publicist: Abbye Simkowitz.
"On Vikar's shaved head is tattooed the right and left lobes of his brain." Zeroville (Europa Editions, November 2007) by Steve Erickson. Tenth book, eighth novel. Agent: Melanie Jackson. Editor: Ken Carroll. Publicist: Chelsea Lindman.
"Mall traffic on a gray winter's day, stalled." Last Night at the Lobster (Penguin, November 2007) by Stewart O'Nan. Thirteenth book, eleventh novel. Agent: David Gernert. Editor: Joshua Kendall. Publicist: Sonya Cheuse.
