Megan Giddings is a features editor at The Rumpus, a channel of the Los Angeles Review of Books, and a contributing editor at Boulevard. She is a recipient of a Barbara Deming Memorial Fund grant for feminist fiction. Her short stories have been published in Black Warrior Review, Gulf Coast, and Iowa Review. Megan holds degrees from University of Michigan and Indiana University. She lives in Michigan.
One Leg on Earth (2026) 'Pemi Aguda "A fearless work of fiction in the lineage of Toni Morrison's Sula. 'Pemi Aguda writes beautifully about the ways realities can break and why they sometimes should be shattered."
Hemlock (2026) Melissa Faliveno "Melissa Faliveno's Hemlock is a terrific Midwestern ghost story. A novel that knows a northwoods late at night, an old cabin, and a lonely soul can all be equally as haunted."
The Compound (2025) Aisling Rawle "I couldn't put The Compound down - it is that rare combination of propulsive and brilliant. I read it in one big gulp and then brought it up at two different dinners to talk about its mix of gender dynamics, capitalism, and power."
A Thousand Times Before (2024) Asha Thanki "Asha Thanki's A Thousand Times Before is a tremendous debut with deeply interesting characters. It's a rare book that can delve so deeply and honestly into the complicated layers of love, power, motherhood, and obligation and still leave readers with a sense of optimism and hope. Beautiful!"
Like Happiness (2024) Ursula Villarreal-Moura "Like Happiness is a stunning swirl of a coming of age novel about power, manipulation, and complicity. In Tatum, Ursula Villarreal-Moura has created an eminently relatable character. Readers will connect to her love of books, her complicated relationships, and the different ways she grapples with understanding herself-in relation to class, sexuality, race, and family ties. This is the start of a brilliant career."
Dead in Long Beach, California (2024) Venita Blackburn "Venita Blackburn's Dead in Long Beach, California is a remarkable novel. A profound mix of imagination, sadness, and humor that is truly unlike any other book I've ever read."
A History of Burning (2023) Janika Oza "[Oza's] writing reminds people that vulnerability and openness are the only ways we can save each other. A History of Burning is the art we need now."
Jackal (2022) Erin E Adams "A thrilling blend of detective story, turn-all-the-lights-on-in-your-house-while-reading horror, and social commentary about how often women of color, especially Black women, go missing and get little attention . . . It's an impressive and thoughtful debut."
Cherish Farrah (2022) Bethany C Morrow "Cherish Farrah is a delicious page-turner [with a] strong intellectual foundation, set in a world that on the surface feels disturbingly glossy with its champagne and perfect dresses and two Black girls who are clinging to each other."
When the Reckoning Comes (2021) LaTanya McQueen "LaTanya McQueen's When The Reckoning Comes is so deliciously uncomfortable there were moments where I had to put the book down, take a deep breath, and like Mira, its protagonist, urge myself to go further. This is a novel, like Octavia Butler's Kindred, that reminds its readers that as long as people don't acknowledge how much of the past still shapes the present, it will bring its whips, its hatchets, and fists to make us learn."
