Derek Palacio’s 2016 debut novel The Mortifications was named A New York Times Best Book of 2016. This powerful novel explores how conflicting political ideals, culture clashes, spiritual crises, and divided passions challenge a Cuban-American family over multiple generations at the turn of the twenty-first century. Breathtaking, soulful, and profound, The Mortifications is an intoxicating family saga and a timely, urgent expression of longing for one’s true homeland. Palacio was born in Evanston, IL and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the Ohio State University. His work has appeared in Puerto del Sol and The Kenyon Review. His short story “Sugarcane” appeared in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2013. He is the co-director, with wife, the novelist and former Midwest Literary Walk participant, Claire Vaye Watkins, of the Mojave School, a free creative writing workshop for teenagers in rural Nevada. He lives and teaches in Ann Arbor, MI.

“Some books are storms. Others are weather. Derek Palacio’s debut novel, The Mortifications, is very much the latter. It is hot sun and cool rain, morning fog and the hum of a fan in the window. It ranges and roams, this book. When it settles onto a moment, it does so with the weight of ten butterflies.” —NPR

NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2016, NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR’S CHOICE SELECTION

Derek Palacio’s stunning, mythic novel marks the arrival of a fresh voice and a new chapter in the history of 21st century Cuban-American literature.

In 1980, a rural Cuban family is torn apart during the Mariel Boatlift. Uxbal Encarnación—father, husband, political insurgent—refuses to leave behind the revolutionary ideals and lush tomato farms of his sun-soaked homeland. His wife Soledad takes young Isabel and Ulises hostage and flees with them to America, leaving behind Uxbal for the promise of a better life. But instead of settling with fellow Cuban immigrants in Miami’s familiar heat, Soledad pushes further north into the stark, wintry landscape of Hartford, Connecticut. There, in the long shadow of their estranged patriarch, now just a distant memory, the exiled mother and her children begin a process of growth and transformation.

Each struggles and flourishes in their own way: Isabel, spiritually hungry and desperate for higher purpose, finds herself tethered to death and the dying in uncanny ways. Ulises is bookish and awkwardly tall, like his father, whose memory haunts and shapes the boy’s thoughts and desires. Presiding over them both is Soledad. Once consumed by her love for her husband, she begins a tempestuous new relationship with a Dutch tobacco farmer. But just as the Encarnacións begin to cultivate their strange new way of life, Cuba calls them back. Uxbal is alive, and waiting.

Breathtaking, soulful, and profound, The Mortifications is an intoxicating family saga and a timely, urgent expression of longing for one’s true homeland.

Praise for The Mortifications:

“Extraordinary. . . . A powerful story. . . . Palacio unspools his characters’ lives with the type of omniscient authority befitting an epic. . . . The narrative may operate on a grand scale, but Palacio is just as gifted a miniaturist, able to distill the unbearable ruptures in a family down to a single image.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Some books are storms. Others are weather. Derek Palacio’s debut novel, The Mortifications, is very much the latter. It is hot sun and cool rain, morning fog and the hum of a fan in the window. It ranges and roams, this book. When it settles onto a moment, it does so with the weight of ten butterflies.” —NPR

“The Mortifications is fascinated with bodies—especially the physical manifestations of emotions. . . . The novel doesn’t seem to want to sublimate the ugly, the putrid, or the decayed; it’s aware that describing abject bodily realities, in fiction, can in a sense turn them into objects of beauty.” —Bookforum

“Palacio writes vividly, conjuring smells and tastes of life both in the frozen north and the tropical Caribbean, from the sweat of a nun, for whom expensive soap might prompt ‘inclinations toward vanity’ to the flavor of tobacco and tomatoes.” —The Boston Globe

“A sweeping, lyrical tale of a family’s undoing. . . . Palacio’s prose contains moments of beauty and magic that are a pleasure to the ear.” —Dallas Morning News

Dr. Heather Ann Thompson, Detroit native and Professor at the University of Michigan, is an award-winning historian who has written extensively on policing, mass incarceration and the current criminal justice system. Her recent book, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy, was named a finalist for the National Book Award, appears on more than a dozen Best of 2016 lists, and is also included on the list of Best Human Rights Books of 2016. Thirteen years of research in the making, Blood in the Water tells the civil rights story of the Attica Correctional Facility uprising and the thirty-nine prisoners and hostages who died when the state of New York retook the prison by force. Thompson has served as a board member and advisor for a number of organizations such as the Prison Policy Initiative, and has shared her work with government officials at home and abroad including Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, and the UK.

“The power of this superb work of history comes from its methodical mastery of interviews, transcripts, police reports and other documents, covering 35 years, many released only reluctantly by government agencies, and many of those “rendered nearly unreadable from all of the redactions.” –The New York Times

WINNER OF THE 2017 PULITZER PRIZE FOR HISTORY, NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST, NEW YORK TIMES MOST NOTABLE BOOKS of 2016, TOP TEN BEST BOOKS of 2016 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, BEST HUMAN RIGHTS BOOKS of 2016

THE FIRST DEFINITIVE HISTORY OF THE INFAMOUS 1971 ATTICA PRISON UPRISING, THE STATE’S VIOLENT RESPONSE, AND THE VICTIMS’ DECADES-LONG QUEST FOR JUSTICE

On September 9, 1971, nearly 1,300 prisoners took over the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York to protest years of mistreatment. Holding guards and civilian employees hostage, the prisoners negotiated with officials for improved conditions during the four long days and nights that followed.

On September 13, the state abruptly sent hundreds of heavily armed troopers and correction officers to retake the prison by force. Their gunfire killed thirty-nine men—hostages as well as prisoners—and severely wounded more than one hundred others. In the ensuing hours, weeks, and months, troopers and officers brutally retaliated against the prisoners. And, ultimately, New York State authorities prosecuted only the prisoners, never once bringing charges against the officials involved in the retaking and its aftermath and neglecting to provide support to the survivors and the families of the men who had been killed.

Drawing from more than a decade of extensive research, historian Heather Ann Thompson sheds new light on every aspect of the uprising and its legacy, giving voice to all those who took part in this forty-five-year fight for justice: prisoners, former hostages, families of the victims, lawyers and judges, and state officials and members of law enforcement. Blood in the Water is the searing and indelible account of one of the most important civil rights stories of the last century.

Praise for Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy

“Writing with cinematic clarity from meticulously sourced material, Thompson describes the uprising and its causes as well as the violent retaking of the prison grounds by police and correction officers…Thompson’s superb and thorough study serves as a powerful tale of the search for justice in the face of the abuses of institutional power.” —Publisher’s Weekly

“A masterly account . . . Essential . . . Blood in the Water restores [the prisoners’] struggle to its rightful place in our collective memory.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Chilling, and in places downright shocking . . . [Thompson] tells the story of the riot and its aftermath with precision and momentum.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Masterful.” —The Nation

Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, and the New York Times Bestselling author of 24 books, including The Crossover,  a  middle grade novel in verse, which received the 2015 Newbery Medal for the Most Distinguished Contribution to American literature for Children, the Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor, and other awards. The Crossover follows the experiences of twin basketball stars who struggle with challenges on and off the court while their father ignores his declining health. His follow-up novel Booked, longlisted for a National Book Award in 2016, similarly follows 12-year-old soccer aficionado Nick who discovers the power of words while wrestling with problems at home.  Alexander’s newest book is The Playbook: 52 Rules to Aim, Shoot, and Score in This Game Called Life.

Kwame believes that poetry can change the world, and he uses it to inspire and empower young people through his Page to Stage Writing and Publishing Program. A regular speaker at schools and conferences in the U.S., he also travels the world planting seeds of literary love: Singapore, Brazil, Italy, France, Shanghai, and recently, Alexander led a delegation of 20 writers and activists to Ghana, where they delivered books, built a library, and provided literacy professional development to 300 teachers. The Kwame Alexander Papers, a collection of his writings, correspondence, and other professional and personal documents is held at the George Washington University Gelman Library.

“This novel in verse is rich in character and relationships. . . . Poet Alexander deftly reveals the power of the format to pack an emotional punch.” (The Crossover) —Kirkus, starred review

The Crossover

12-year old Josh Bell. He and his twin brother Jordan are awesome on the court. But Josh has more than basketball in his blood, he’s got mad beats, too, that tell his family’s story in verse, in this fast and furious middle grade novel of family and brotherhood from Kwame Alexander.

Booked

In this follow-up to the Newbery-winning novel THE CROSSOVER, soccer, family, love, and friendship, take center stage as twelve-year-old Nick learns the power of words as he wrestles with problems at home, stands up to a bully, and tries to impress the girl of his dreams. Helping him along are his best friend and sometimes teammate Coby, and The Mac, a rapping librarian who gives Nick inspiring books to read.  Josh and Jordan must come to grips with growing up on and off the court to realize breaking the rules comes at a terrible price, as their story’s heart-stopping climax proves a game-changer for the entire family.

NEW!  The Playbook: 52 Rules to Aim, Shoot, and Score in This Game Called Life

Illustrated with photographs by Thai Neave, The Playbook is intended to provide inspiration on the court of life. Each rule contains wisdom from inspiring athletes and role models such as Nelson Mandela, Serena Williams, LeBron James, Carli Lloyd, Steph Curry and Michelle Obama. Kwame Alexander also provides his own poetic and uplifting words, as he shares stories of overcoming obstacles and winning games in this motivational and inspirational book just right for graduates of any age and anyone needing a little encouragement.

Praise for Kwame Alexander:

“Kwame Alexander’s cadenced basketball novel is a gem of poise and grace. His players come alive with the precision and control of an orchestrated musical composition. The poetry of the telling rings through to the heart. The Crossover  crosses over as a gift to all ages.” —Ashley Bryan, Two-time Coretta Scott King Award winner.

“The poems dodge and weave with the speed of a point guard driving for the basket, mixing basketball action with vocabulary-themed poems, newspaper clippings, and Josh’s sincere first-person accounts that swing from moments of swagger-worth triumph to profound pain.” (The Crossover) —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“With Booked, a novel about a soccer-obsessed tween boy written entirely in verse? In a word, yes. Kwame Alexander has the magic to pull off this unlikely feat, both as a poet and as a storyteller. (Booked)” —The Chicago Tribune

“Newbery-winning poet Alexander once again brings to life a novel in verse that equally captures the rapid-fire excitement of a soccer match and the palpable pain of a young boy whose family is falling apart. Another winning goal for Alexander and middle school readers alike.” (Booked) —School Library Journal

Airea D. Matthews first collection of poems, simulacra (2017), is the Winner of the 2016 Yale Series of Younger Poets. The prize, the oldest annual literary award in the United States, is awarded by Yale University Press, and is open to emerging poets who have not previously published a book of poetry and who reside in the United States. Previous winners of the Yale prize include such talents as Adrienne Rich, John Ashbery, Jack Gilbert, Jean Valentine and Robert Hass. Critically acclaimed poet Carl Phillips selected Matthews as the winner of the competition, who describes it as “rollicking, destabilizing, at once intellectually sly and piercing and finally poignant”.

Matthews holds an MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at University of Michigan, where she is now the assistant director. Both a Cave Canem Fellow and Kresge Literary Arts Fellow, she also serves as executive editor of The Offering and is the recipient of a 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award. Her poems have appeared in American Poets, Best American Poetry 2015, The Baffler, Callaloo, Indiana Review, WSQ, Muzzle, Vinyl, Kinfolks and elsewhere. Matthews’ prose has appeared in SLAB, Michigan Quarterly Review and Vida: Her Kind.  Matthews lives in Detroit, and was just named Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia, beginning in Fall 2017.

WINNER 2016 YALE SERIES OF YOUNGER POETS, WINNER 2016 RONA JAFFEE FOUNDATION WRITERS AWARD

A fresh and rebellious poetic voice, Airea D. Matthews debuts in the acclaimed series that showcases the work of exciting and innovative young American poets. Matthews’s superb collection explores the topic of want and desire with power, insight, and intense emotion. Her poems cross historical boundaries and speak emphatically from a racialized America, where the trajectories of joy and exploitation, striving and thwarting, violence and celebration are constrained by differentials of privilege and contemporary modes of communication. In his foreword, series judge Carl Phillips calls this book “rollicking, destabilizing, at once intellectually sly and piercing and finally poignant.” This is poetry that breaks new literary ground, inspiring readers to think differently about what poems can and should do in a new media society where imaginations are laid bare and there is no thought too provocative to send out into the world.

Praise for simulacra:

“Rebellion is the first word that comes to mind, when reading simulacra, Airea Matthews’s rollicking, destabilizing, at once intellectually sly and piercing and finally poignant debut. The main rebellion here is against all formal expectations of what a book of poetry is or ‘should’ be – Narcissus communicates by Tweets, Anne Sexton sends texts from death to a recipient who may or may not be dead; there’s a miniature opera; there are upended nods to the epistolary tradition, prose poems, even a Barthes-influenced calculus. The subject matter is no less various – from miscegenation to Gertrude Stein, from estranged love to Wittgenstein — but a particular constant is the theme of wanting: on one hand, wanting as desire, for safety, for faith, for a way to know the self; and on the other hand, wanting as lack, lack both as emptiness and as a motivating force behind the quest for an end to emptiness. And if language itself is empty, and all we have, when it comes to knowing? This is the governing, haunting question behind these always meaningfully provocative poems – poems, yes, but very much, also, poems as epistemology.” –Yale Series judge Carle Phillips on simulacra:

ML Liebler is an internationally known and widely published Detroit poet, university professor, literary arts activist and arts organizer. He is the author of 13 books including the award winning Wide Awake in Someone Else’s Dream. The Coyote Monk Poetry Band features Grammy winning Eminem producer and bassist Steve King, The Blue Room guitarist Charlie Palazzola , Frankie the K of Black Hat on the keys, and from The Dangerous Diane Band, The Ghost Band, and 54 Sound session, drummer Leonard Johnson.

Bonnie Jo Campbell is the author of the bestselling novel Once Upon a River (July 2011, W.W. Norton) and a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow. She was a 2009 National Book Award finalist and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for her collection of stories, American Salvage. Campbell is also author of the novel Q Road and the story collection Women & Other Animals. She lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan with her husband and two donkeys.

Diane Seuss’s most recent collection of poems, Four-Legged Girl, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2015. Her second book, Wolf Lake, White Gown Blown Open (2010), won the Juniper Prize for Poetry. A poem that originally appeared in Blackbird received a Pushcart Prize in 2013, and Seuss’s poem Free Beer was selected by guest editor Terrance Hayes for the 2014 Best American Poetry anthology. Seuss is Writer in Residence at Kalamazoo College.

Mona Jean Cedar attended Julliard School for Theatrical Interpreting and the National Theater of the Deaf’s Actors’ Academy and currently lives Los Angeles. She composes poetry with American Sign Language and choreographs with foreign sign languages. She has competed at the 1996 Poetry Slams Nationals; interpreted at the 2003 Nationals Poetry Slams and represented the United States at the 2011 international slam in Paris, France. She is the recipient of the 2013 Spirit of the Slam award.

Matt Bell’s debut novel In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods was selected as a 2014 Michigan Notable Book and longlisted for the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize. He is also the author of two previous books, How They Were Found and Cataclysm Baby. He teaches creative writing at Northern Michigan University.

Mardi Jo Link is the author of a memoir, Bootstrapper: From Broke to Badass on a Northern Michigan Farm, and the true crime books, When Evil Came to Good Hart and Isadore’s Secret. She is the recipient of the 2013 Booksellers Choice Award from the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association and two Michigan Notable Book Awards. She studied journalism at Michigan State University and creative writing at Queens University of Charlotte. She lives with her family in Traverse City, on The Big Valley, the small farm featured in her memoir.