Chelsea Bieker is from California's Central Valley. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Writer's Foundation Award and her fiction and essays have been published in Granta, McSweeney's, Catapult magazine, Electric Literature, and Joyland, among other publications. She was awarded a MacDowell Colony fellowship and holds an MFA in creative writing from Portland State University. Godshot is her first novel.
Night Objects (2026) Eli Raphael "Haunting, luminous, and utterly absorbing, Night Objects captures the ache of grief and the perilous seduction of belonging with exquisite precision. Eli Raphael writes with a rare emotional intelligence and an eye for beauty that makes even the darkest moments shimmer. Chilling and deeply felt, I couldn't put this novel down."
Paper Cut (2026) Rachel Taff "Paper Cut is razor-sharp, dark, and propulsive. Rachel Taff exposes the shadows beneath survival and celebrity - the stories we tell to stay free, and the lies that warp our days. Mesmerizing and unflinching, gripping and twisty, I'd follow Lucy Golden anywhere. An explosive debut from a bold new talent."
Hemlock (2026) Melissa Faliveno "Hauntingly visceral and utterly mesmerizing, Hemlock plunges into the shadowed and swirling terrain of dependence and its many faces. Melissa Faliveno weaves addiction as metamorphosis, desire as wilderness, in prose that pulses like a heartbeat. A debut of startling originality that reads like a fever dream and burrows beneath the skin. Hemlock is urgent, unapologetic, and utterly unforgettable."
Needle Lake (2025) Justine Champine "Haunts and dazzles . . . Immersive, atmospheric, and wise, this is a spellbinding exploration of identity, belonging, and the treacherous journey through adolescence. Needle Lake cements Justine Champine as a brilliant and original voice."
Beyond All Reasonable Doubt, Jesus Is Alive! (2025) Melissa Lozada-Oliva "Melissa Lozada-Oliva writes with a perfect blend of intoxicating magic and unflinching humor, illuminating the visceral tensions of yearning and darkness that define our most human moments. A beautiful, sharp-tongued collection that feels like an instant classic with an edge all its own."
L.A. Women (2025) Ella Berman "Ella Berman's writing is transportive, hypnotic, and addictive. I fell wholeheartedly in love with the intensity of these L.A. Women and the way Berman unabashedly explores the deep, glimmering, and turbulent waters of artistic ambition amid the alluring backdrop of 1960's Los Angeles. This novel reads like a spell, a California fever dream, and a risk taking excavation of the moments that most define us. L.A. Women is phenomenal."
Ghost Fish (2025) Stuart Pennebaker "Ghost Fish is a luminous novel of grief, sisterhood, and the necessary magic we need in order to bridge loss and healing. Stuart Pennebaker has written a shimmering, otherworldly exploration of love that persists beyond the boundaries of life and death. A dazzling, original debut that will leave you forever changed."
Nesting (2025) Roisin O'Donnell "Nesting is a perfect portrayal of the insidious nature of intimate partner abuse where the bruises are not physical, but violently emotional. I fell in love with the voice of Ciara as she sets out to create a new life against all odds for herself and her children. A story of bravery, love, and redemption, chock full of emotional suspense - I couldn't look away. A high-wire act of a debut."
A Home for the Holidays (2024) Taylor Hahn "Taylor Hahn performs magic by exploring the deepest reaches of loss, love, and finding ourselves, and does it with humor, wit, and a flair for serendipity. She reminds us that even our most well-worn stories about our loved ones - and ourselves - can surprise us if only we are willing to take a closer look. This book is for anyone who has ever yearned for a mother and felt the singular grief of a too-soon, complicated loss. A Home for the Holidays holds all the complexities of grief and just what it takes to carve your own path out of the rubble. Redemptive, relatable, smart-funny, and yes, romantic, this novel will make you believe in second chances. I will never forget these characters. Be ready to fall in love."
The Volcano Daughters (2024) Gina María Balibrera "Inventive, surprising, and potent, I fell under Gina Balibrera's spell from the first line and could not look away. To write a book with this much heart, where each sentence feels like it plumbs the darkest depths and soars to the brightest of skies, you have to be some sort of savant of the human heart. The Volcano Daughters blew my mind with its rich humor, its beautiful portrayal of women's lives, and its unstoppable plot, all wrapped up in a narrative voice I'd follow anywhere. How lucky we are to have Balibrera spinning tales for us this good. I'll be her reader for life."
Our Long Marvelous Dying (2024) Anna DeForest "Our Long Marvelous Dying solidifies Anna DeForest's place as a cool and stylish prose master of striking and exquisite sentences that refuse to turn away from what others deny; a meditation on love and dying, grief and living, and the beautiful, shattering ways they are all entwined. I raced through this book with a heart-stricken propulsion, spellbound to the gutting last line. DeForest is a remarkable talent."
Honey (2024) Isabel Banta "Isabel Banta has delivered an all-access pass to the early-aughts pop world of my dreams in the form of this gorgeous, powerful, and unapologetic romp of a novel. Dripping with sweat, sex, and yes, honey, the character of Amber Young will forever redefine how we think of the perils of stardom, paparazzi, and becoming who you're meant to be despite it all. Effervescent and full of energy, the lessons in Honey are as needed today as they were in the age of Y2K pop. A rare, shining star of a debut."
The Sleepwalkers (2024) Scarlett Thomas "Brilliant and utterly surprising, The Sleepwalkers kept me up late, ensnared by these pitch-perfect voices and desperate to know what was going to happen next, but also, what exactly happened in the past. A gut-wrenching mystery about how far we will go to keep our secrets, and how secrets can reverberate outward in shocking and devastating ways. Lush and deeply human, stylish and sexy and important, The Sleepwalkers will take your breath away."
Bright Objects (2024) Ruby Todd "A novel written with immense grace, beauty, and depth, Bright Objects plumbs the farthest reaches of one widow's grief, ultimately revealing the brilliance of our humanity in the face of immense loss - the will to fight for what's right, the will to hope, and most importantly, the will to love again. A surprising, thrilling, and seductively dangerous comet of a book."
Hard Girls (2024) (Jane and Lila Pool, book 1) J Robert Lennon "HARD GIRLS excels as a racing, twisty crime novel about the things we do to survive and how the people we love most surprise us, challenge us, and sometimes, if we're lucky, save us. Jane's desire to be the mother her mother never was will pull at your heartstrings and the inventive plot will keep you glued to the page. Lennon reminds us there's no escaping the past until we look it square in the eye. A bold and adventurous novel."
Eli Harpo's Adventure to the Afterlife (2024) Eric Schlich "Crackling with humanity, wit, bravery, and heart, Eli Harpo's Adventure to the Afterlife is a bold debut that touches the center of what it means to discover who you really are, even if it means challenging what you've always been told was the truth. This book is for anyone who survived childhood and lived to tell the tale - immersive and rich, layered and complex, a thrilling exploration of sexuality, faith, and love."
The Glutton (2023) A K Blakemore "Gorgeous and brutal, striking and wise, The Glutton is, at its core, a rich story of the lengths we will go to find belonging. A lyrical and propulsive reimagined historical rendering that will strike a deep cord with today's readers. Like nothing else I've ever read. Absolutely outstanding."
You're an Animal (2023) Jardine Libaire "You're an Animal is a fast and perilous ride toward the center of what makes us human in the most desperate of circumstances. . . . Jardine Libaire has delivered four characters on a quest for belonging that I will never forget, brimming over with unexpected intimacies, adventures, and most of all, the wild desires of the heart. . . . Roving and mysterious, this novel is hot to the touch."
Sidle Creek (2023) Jolene McIlwain "Sidle Creek aches with the particular beauty of grief and is written with remarkable grace."
Aesthetica (2022) Allie Rowbottom "Propulsive, poetic, and addictive as hell, Aesthetica is a wholly original look not only into the world of social media influencers, but into the lives beyond the squares that are devastatingly rich in heart, depth, and ultimately, redemption. Allie Rowbottom writes like a wizard and I kept asking myself, how is she doing it? By the end, I knew only this: No one could write this book without staring down the world, really seeing it, all of it, the ugly and the strange, the blinding and gorgeous bits, and not once looking away. This book doesn't look away. It doesn't flinch. I'll remember it forever."
The Night Shift (2022) Natalka Burian "Natalka Burian is inviting you on the adventure of a lifetime. A wild heartbeat of a book that takes unexpected turns - literally and emotionally - and lands us in a newly discovered world of a beloved city, yes, but also a newly discovered world of ourselves. I was so impressed by the human connections on the page, and will think back often to this cast of characters as if they are friends of my own. We are lucky to have such a story."
So Happy for You (2022) Celia Laskey "Hilarious and wise, So Happy for You reveals the deeper and more sinister truths behind one of society's most commonplace institutions--marriage, and does so with a pitch-perfect, relentlessly inquisitive narrator at the helm. At its core, this is an investigation of friendship and just how much we will sacrifice of our true selves in the name of tradition. This novel made me laugh, made me think, and spun its way to a wholly surprising and thrilling conclusion, where 'together forever' takes on a much more terrifying connotation than most of us can imagine. Laskey is a magician, combining the important social commentary this genre needs with a knock-out page-turning narrative that will leave you guessing to the last page."
God Spare the Girls (2021) Kelsey McKinney "A heart-filled exploration about faith, family, and loyalty, and what it means to strike your own path . . . Told with such tenderness, humor, and yes, hope, this is a novel for anyone who’s felt broken down over faith and love and who has questioned what they thought they knew about life, which is to say, all of us. A coming of age tale that feels fresh and untold . . .These characters will be on my mind for a long time."
