First, I'm going to give you all the Copperfield crap, and I'm not going to apologize for any of it, not one paragraph, so if you're not interested in how I came to see the future, or how I came to understand that the biggest truth in my life was a lie, or, for that matter, how I parlayed my distaste for hot dogs into an '84 RX-7 and a new self-concept, do us both a favor, and just stop now." All About Lulu (Soft Skull Press, July 2008) by Jonathan Evison. First book, novel. Agent: Molly Glick. Editor: Richard Nash. Publicist: Abbye Simkowitz.
"At dawn, the fighter planes coming from their bases in the warm Arabian Gulf discharge their first hot and heavy loads." Zubaida's Window: A Novel of Iraqi Exile (Feminist Press, June 2008) by Iqbal Al-Qazwini. First book, novel. Translators: Azza El Kholy and Amira Nowaira. Agent: Florence Howe. Editor: Florence Howe. Publicist: Franklin Dennis.
"There was intricate machinery involved & a powerful desire / to make it all move." The Wave-Maker (Norton, July 2008) by Elizabeth Spires. Sixth book, poetry collection. Agent: Jane Gelfman. Editor: Jill Bialosky. Publicist: Erin Sinesky Lovett.
"With abject, slavish desire, with offhand, sloppy curiosity, with gratitude, with sedation, I was accidentally engendered." Salvation (Tin House Books, June 2008) by Lucia Nevai. Fourth book, second novel. Agent: Denise Shannon. Editor: Lee Montgomery. Publicist: Deborah Jayne.
"Man, I look fantastic in this derby." Awesome (MacAdam/Cage, July 2008) by Jack Pendarvis. Third book, first novel. Agent: Paul Bresnick. Editor: Dave Adams. Publicist: Julie Burton.
"I expect you have the consolation of religion, or the guidance of a philosophy, but when me and the girls get frazzled, or blue, or rapturous, or just awfully so-so, we shin out and buy ourselves some hats." Missy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2008) by Chris Hannan. First book, novel. Agent: Emma Parry. Editor: Courtney Hodell. Publicist: Kathy Daneman.
"My friend Patsy was telling me a story." When You Are Engulfed in Flames (Little, Brown, June 2008) by David Sedaris. Sixth book, essay collection. Agent: Don Congdon. Editor: Asya Muchnick. Publicist: Marlena Bittner.
"The taxi grazed him, turned him, and left him facedown in a pool of dirty water." Art in America (Viking, July 2008) by Ron McLarty. Third book, novel. Agent: Paul Fedorko. Editor: Paul Slovak. Publicist: Sonya Cheuse.
"I don't like what the moon is supposed to do." Human Dark With Sugar (Copper Canyon Press, June 2008) by Brenda Shaughnessy. Second book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Michael Wiegers. Publicist: Denise Banker.
"I read somewhere that people remember the details of disturbing events because of a chemical released into the body at the time of the trauma." Serpent in the Garden of Dreams (Permanent Press, May 2008) by Robin Messing. First book, novel. Agent: None. Editors: Judith Shepard and Martin Shepard. Publicists: Judith Shepard and Martin Shepard.
"Ruin is a promise / we make to each other: / I am born the day Saigon falls / and Lebanon takes to its own throat a club." Colosseum (Graywolf Press, June 2008) by Katie Ford. Second book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Jeffrey Shotts. Publicist: Mary Matze.
"On December 3rd, 2010, the old man sewed his mouth shut with saltwater-rated fishing line." The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart (West Virginia University Press, July 2008) by M. Glenn Taylor. First book, novel. Agent: None. Editor: Patrick Conner. Publicist: Don Sappington.
