Gail Scott Nightboat Books ($15.95) by erica kaufman In “The Art of Fiction,” Henry James posits that the novel “must take itself seriously for the

Bronwen Hruska Pegasus ($25) by T.K. Dalton Bronwen Hruska's Accelerated combines a social satire with a literary thriller to explore the lengths to which parents will go

Love Stories Ludmila Petrushevskaya translated by Anna Summers Penguin Books ($15) by Alta Ifland After having been blacklisted by the Soviet authorities for two decades,

Kevin Dowd Roundabout Press ($9.95) by Benjamin Woodard It only takes a minor event—that one extra drink, a nosy neighbor rapping on the front door,

Mikita Brottman Nine-Banded Books ($13) by John Pistelli Mikita Brottman’s Thirteen Girls, a superb story cycle fictionalizing the last days of famous serial killers' female victims,

Carter Sickels Bloomsbury ($16) by Rebecca Kuensting Ecological depletion, drug use, rural depopulation, and disillusioned youth in an age of shifting social norms and environmental

Marie-Helene Bertino University of Iowa Press ($16) by Max Vanderhyden The eight stories in Marie-Helene Bertino’s debut collection occupy worlds both recognizable and resolutely askew.

Collected Poems, 1965-2010 Michael Heller Nightboat Books ($22.95) by Robert Zaller Michael Heller is a distinguished American poet in the lineage of George Oppen and

John Yau Copper Canyon Press ($15) by John James Some readers may find it strange that John Yau’s new book, his thirteenth collection of poetry,

Michael Collier W. W. Norton ($25.95) by Barrett Warner Some critics call Michael Collier an associative poet, which has always sounded a little redundant to me. Generalities