In anticipation of the official launch of this newsletter, and to give a sense of my personal aesthetic taste for those considering a subscription and for those who already know and remain curious, I offer this list of 21 books released in 2021 that I spent time with and found highly impactful, luminous, and magical.
Caveat: I’ve omitted books by my friends, colleagues, and students, as well as books I read in manuscript &/or books I blurbed.
*if you click on a title it’ll take you to the book’s publication page
[…] by ava hofmann (Astrophil Press)
Mona by Pola Oloixarac, translated by Adam Morris (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy (Flatiron Books)
All Incomplete by Stefano Harney and Fred Moten (Minor Compositions)
Inland Empire by Melissa Anderson (Fireflies Press)
The Breaks by Julietta Singh (Coach House Books)
Civilizations by Laurent Binet, translated from the French by Sam Taylor (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
The Combustion Cycle by Will Alexander (Roof Books)
Harrow by Joy Williams (Knopf)
Maroon Choreography by fahima ife (Duke University Press)
The Wall by John Lanchester (W.W. Norton)
Ten Skies by Erika Balsom (Fireflies Press)
Beverly Buchanan: Marsh Ruins by Amelia Groom (Afterall Books / One Work)
Nonbinary: A Memoir by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (Abrams Books)
The Mirror and the Palette by Jennifer Higgie (Pegasus Books)
Locating Sol LeWitt edited by David S. Areford (Yale University Press)
The Hotel by Sophie Calle (Siglio Press)
Noopiming by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (University of Minnesota Press)
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (Knopf)