A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley: “Jamel Brinkley’s stories, in a debut that announces the arrival of a significant new voice, reflect the tenderness and vulnerability of black men and boys whose hopes sometimes betray them, especially in a world shaped by race, gender, and class―where luck may be the greatest fiction of all.”

The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth H. Winthrop: “On the eve of his execution, eighteen year old Willie Jones sits in his cell in New Iberia awaiting his end. […] An incisive, meticulously crafted portrait of race, racism, and injustice in the Jim Crow era South that is as intimate and tense as a stage drama, The Mercy Seat is a stunning account of one town’s foundering over a trauma in their midst.”

How to Set Yourself on Fire by Julia Dixon Evans: “When her grandmother Rosamond dies, Sheila inherits a box of secret love letters from Harold C. Carr―a man who is not her grandfather. In spite of herself, Sheila gets caught up in the legacy of the affair, piecing together her grandmother’s past and forging bonds with Torrey and Vinnie as intense and fragile as the crumbling pages in Rosamond’s shoebox.”

Also this month: We’ll interview Anne Fadiman (!) and Michelle Tea (!!).