Editor's Corner

Kevin Young, Dear Darkness, poems: After the loss of his father, Young pays homage to his family with poems that carry the reader across landscapes of personal and cultural loss. (Knopf)  

  Sherman Alexie, Face, poems and short prose: In his first full collection in nine years, Alexie shows his celebrated passion and wit while also exploring new directions. (Hanging Loose)

  Robert Boswell, The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards, stories: These stories display Boswell’s extraordinary range, from the end of two women’s marriages, to a young man’s obsession with his fortune, to another man’s self-discovery on a mountaintop. (Graywolf)

  Ron Carlson, The Signal, a novel: Carlson’s love for the mountains and mastery of fiction radiate in the pages of this thrilling story about a couple who ventures into the Wyoming wilderness only to discover the true nature of their wounds. (Penguin)

  James Carroll, Practicing Catholic, nonfiction: Carroll sets this searching examination of his faith against the history of the Catholic Church in America, and the sometimes glorious, sometimes discouraging actions of its leaders. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Margot Livesey, The House on Fortune Street, a novel: This absorbing novel opens multiple perspectives on the life of Dara MacLeod, a young London therapist, partly by paying subtle homage to literary figures and works. (Harper)

Alberto Ríos, The Theater of Night, poems: Set along the U.S.–Mexican border, Ríos’s poems charmingly follow the courtship and marriage of a couple as their lives sweetly weave into one. (Copper Canyon)

Thomas Lux, God Particles, poems: A satiric edge cuts through many of the poems in this new collection, with unexpected moments of grace instilling even the darkest moments with surprising sweetness. (Houghton Mifflin)

Dan Wakefield, The Hijacking of Jesus, nonfiction: With courage, passion, and outrage, Wakefield asks how and why the Christian faith has been appropriated and manipulated by current politics. (Nation)