Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the Story Prize, the LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction. Deesha is a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow, a Baldwin for the Arts Fellow, a United States Artists Fellow, and co-host of two podcasts, Ursa Short Fiction (with Dawnie Walton) and Reckon True Stories (with Kiese Laymon). She is currently at work developing TV shows based on her short fiction. The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman, is Deesha’s debut novel, from Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins,realised on September 29, 2026.
The Grand Paloma Resort (2025) Cleyvis Natera "Cleyvis Natera is a masterful storyteller, and this irresistible novel is a master class in human nature at its most vulnerable, most callous, and most righteous."
When the Harvest Comes (2025) Denne Michele Norris "Epic, intimate, brutal, and tender, Denne Michele Norrishas written a breathtaking testimony about the boundlessness of love. Each character enters like a light beam, puncturing your soul with joy, heartbreak, and unwavering faith in the ability to right their wrongs before time runs out. Seductive, symphonic, and sensitively rendered, When the Harvest Comes announces the arrival of a major new American voice."
Let Me Liberate You (2024) Andie Davis "With Let Me Liberate You, Andie Davis has pulled off a dazzling feat of storytelling, featuring Sabre, an accidental artistic genius-turned-inadvertent Bajan activist searching for purpose in an IG-obsessed world. Told hilariously through multiple perspectives, Sabre's misadventures had me laughing my ass off while also thinking deeply about the inequities and absurdities Davis skewers so cleverly. From the brilliantly drawn cast of characters to the gratifying twists, I absolutely loved this book! A rollicking read and a phenomenal debut."
Habitations (2024) Sheila Sundar "Sheila Sundar's irresistible debut is a provocative meditation on grief, desire, and the unexpected ways the two entangle. Brimming with emotional intricacies, crisp prose, and sly humor, HABITATIONS traverses the complicated, intimate politics and promises of the places we seek to call 'home'."
The New Naturals (2023) Gabriel Bump "Gabriel Bump's brilliant and surprising novel The New Naturals takes us inside a utopian world and, even more deeply and wondrously, inside the souls of an impressive array of characters. Through them, Bump holds up a mirror to our own grief, longings, and rage in the face of a cruel, crumbling society. Intricate and intimate, Bump's prose is simply masterful."
Hot Springs Drive (2023) Lindsay Hunter "Lindsay Hunter's Hot Springs Drive left me absolutely gutted, devastated. We often lament how long it takes us to see our parents as people, but we don't talk enough about what it feels like, what it does to us, when our parents are terrible people. With fearless, pitch-perfect prose, Hunter mines the treacherous territory of loving one's parents despite their brokenness, and of the interior lives of children who are left to pick up the pieces. This is truly brilliant, sexy, and sly storytelling."
Company (2023) Shannon Sanders "Shannon Sanders's stories simply blew me away. The Collins family and the many folks in their orbit are endlessly fascinating, frustrating, and fun to meet on the page. Company is a riotous, dazzling debut that is as profound as it is entertaining."
This is Salvaged (2023) Vauhini Vara "I finished This is Salvaged and immediately wanted to re-read it. What a ride. Vauhini Vara's writing is immersive, yielding stories that are clever and surprising, heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny. A brilliant, deeply satisfying collection."
Good Women (2023) Halle Hill "In Halle Hill's Good Women, we meet mothers and daughters, lovers and friends, saints and aint's - all longing for something, some place, someone. They are curious, messy, and determined, and Hill's fierce and dazzling pen lets us feel every ounce of their complicated desires. Every mistake, every realization, every triumph, every tragedy. This is a fantastic firecracker of a collection I'll return to again and again!"
Coleman Hill (2023) Kim Coleman Foote "Coleman Hill is a riveting two-family epic with a chorus of unforgettable voices, equal parts haunting and illuminating. They are mothers and daughters, lovers and friends, all bearing the weight of the Great Migration Promised Land's broken promises over several generations. For those of us who grew up hearing (or suffering through) the adage, 'Mothers love their sons and raise their daughters, ' Coleman Hill boldly and tenderly tells us why."
Holler, Child (2023) LaToya Watkins "Every story, every character, every line of LaToya Watkins's Holler, Child is a revelation. But it's the devastating voices of her characters that linger most. I got lost, in a good way, in these pages, in the complex, intimate worlds Watkins conjures so beautifully. Alluring, intense, and utterly original, this collection is a treasure!"
Family Lore (2023) Elizabeth Acevedo "There's deep magic not only among the close-knit Marte sisters and their offspring, but on every page of Family Lore. At turns tender, intense, sensual, and hilarious, I couldn't get enough of this book. Elizabeth Acevedo's precise, intricate prose mesmerizes, surprises, and delights. This is a family saga to be read with your whole heart and soul."
Temple Folk (2023) Aaliyah Bilal "Obviously a student of history, and even more so, a student of the human heart, Aaliyah Bilal lays bare the interior lives of Black Muslims in these ten extraordinary stories. Across decades, generations, and continents, Bilal's finely wrought and unforgettable characters grapple with religion, culture, family, desire, and most compellingly, themselves. Every story was an eye-opener for me. Bilal is a gifted storyteller, and Temple Folk is quite simply a masterpiece."
The Best Possible Experience (2023) Nishanth Injam "In Nishanth Injam's enthralling, deeply intimate stories, characters contend with what it takes to survive grief, heartbreak, disappointment, another culture, and each other. Full of surprises and truly breathtaking moments, this is an exquisite debut!"
Fat Time and Other Stories (2023) Jeffery Renard Allen "Reading Jeffery Renard Allen's Fat Time and Other Stories feels like free-falling, tumbling, spiraling headlong into stark new worlds and fever dreams. Allen's characters - restless and rebellious, famous and infamous - draw you in with the force of their longings, fears, and blues. These stories are eclectic, electric and endlessly imaginative."
And Then He Sang a Lullaby (2023) Ani Kayode Somtochukwu "In stunning, luminous prose, Ani Kayode Somtochukwu captures how it feels to carry both the love and burden of family, and what it costs to bear the weight of revolutions - the ones happening inside of us and beyond. A beautifully written, captivating debut!"
House of Cotton (2023) Monica Brashears "Every page, every scene, every sentence of Monica Brashears's debut novel House of Cotton dazzles and surprises. An intense, enthralling, and deeply satisfying read!"
When Trying to Return Home (2023) Jennifer Maritza McCauley "Powerful, propulsive, and at the same time, tender, the stories in When Trying to Return Home overflow with unforgettable characters and voices. A stunning debut!"
Gone Like Yesterday (2023) Janelle M Williams "There's so much music in the engrossing pages of Gone Like Yesterday--in the songs of mothers and daughters, brothers and sisters, would-be lovers, and the ancestors who watch over us. With lyricism and precision, Janelle M. Williams deftly captures the complicated beauty and chaos within our deepest relationships. A magical, mesmerizing debut!"
Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm (2022) Laura Warrell "Beautifully and cleverly written, Laura Warrell's Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm is a stunner. The novel's tender, sensual, enchanting prose entices you into a world of deep longing and so much heartache. Still, I didn't want to leave it. A truly mesmerizing debut!"
The Family Izquierdo (2022) Rubén Degollado "In The Family Izquierdo, every story is a revelation. Ruben Degollado's storytelling is as rigorous as it is intricate. Intimate and epic, it brims with magic and spirit. A bold, beautiful debut!"
Stories from the Tenants Downstairs (2022) Sidik Fofana "Full of tenderness and truth . . . The voices of the residents of Banneker Terrace linger and echo long after the last page. A tremendous debut!"
Shmutz (2022) Felicia Berliner "Clever, subversive, juicy, and surprising....A stunner!"
God's Children Are Little Broken Things (2022) Arinze Ifeakandu "Captures the tenderness and tumult of queer love, familial love, self-love, and the many ways love elates and eludes us.... Masterful. What a glorious collection!"
Post-Traumatic (2022) Chantal V Johnson "Stunning and riotous, Post-Traumatic took me right under and then revived me, like only the best fiction can do. Johnson's delicious, meticulous prose delivers such intimacy and hilarity on the page, I laughed and cried all the way through. This is a raw, brilliant, and unforgettable debut. I love everything about it!"
What the Fireflies Knew (2022) Kai Harris "What the Fireflies Knew is a fabulous debut and truly a gem of a novel, full of the beauty, tenderness, and poignancy of Black girlhood."
Nobody's Magic (2022) Destiny O Birdsong "With Nobody's Magic, Destiny Birdsong has given us a devastatingly beautiful, sexy, searing gift. These are stunning, irresistible stories of Southern Black womanhood that I will return to again and again."
Yonder (2022) Jabari Asim "Jabari Asim's masterful Yonder has no doubt set our Ancestors to dancing and rejoicing. A compelling and dazzling storyteller, Asim beautifully captures the depth of their bonds, intellect, and unwavering commitment to each other, honoring the fullness of their humanity against the backdrop of enslavement. This novel made me shout, cry, laugh, and, most of all, believe."
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois (2021) Honorée Fannone Jeffers "From our earliest roots, African and Indigenous, to our present-day realities weighed down by inequity and injustice, Jeffers writes about all of us with such tenderness and deep knowing. Hers is the gorgeous prose one expects from a gifted, accomplished poet, masterful and stunning, as she explores both the bountiful resilience of Black folks and the insidious depravity wrought by white supremacy. These Love Songs make for a frank, feminist, and unforgettable read."
