Julie Buntin is from northern Michigan. Her work has appeared in the Atlantic, Cosmopolitan, O, The Oprah Magazine, Slate, Electric Literature, and One Teen Story, among other publications. She teaches fiction writing at Marymount Manhattan College, and is the director of writing programs at Catapult. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
The Volcano Daughters (2024) Gina María Balibrera "My mind and heart were blown open by Gina Maria Balibrera's astonishing debut. The Volcano Daughters is a work of fierce ambition and blazing emotion, narrated by an unforgettable chorus of ghosts who trace the story of their friends, sisters Graciela and Consuelo, through a journey that spans continents and generations. As the chorus says: 'The word makes the world,' and with this novel, her first, Balibrera has done nothing less. Her invocation of the voices of a group of women whose lives were distorted and cut short by El Salvador's violent dictator El Gran Pendejo left me breathless - and is one of the most powerful stories of motherhood, sisterhood, and survival I've ever read. A colossal achievement."
Mystery Lights (2024) Lena Valencia "I've loved Lena Valencia's brilliant, beguiling stories for years and read her debut collection in a single breathless evening. These are stories with teeth, both chilling and bold, about the strength and vulnerability of women and girls. Full of surprising turns, Mystery Lights reminded me of the incredible power of short fiction to speak the truth."
Old Enough (2023) Haley Jakobson "Haley Jakobson's Old Enough evokes the stormy early years of college with such tenderness and honesty I was transported right back to campus. This pitch-perfect story about queer coming-of-age is brilliantly observed, wildly funny, and full of insights into the way the past can snake through the present - no matter how hard we try to escape. I loved every word and can't wait for what Jakobson writes next."
The One (2023) Julia Argy "I could not stop reading Julia Argy's smart, funny, and tender debut novel about falling in love and finding oneself on and offscreen. Set in the world of reality TV and populated by unforgettable women, The One is everything I want in a novel - deliciously readable prose, a surprising love story, and insights that linger long after the last page. It's a stunner, and I'm counting the days until Argy's next book."
How to Fall Out of Love Madly (2022) Jana Casale "In subtle, exquisitely precise prose, How to Fall Out of Love Madly astounds with its insights about love and the search for meaning and self-acceptance. Everyone who loves Sally Rooney should be reading Jana Casale!"
American Fever (2022) Dur e Aziz Amna "American Fever is the unforgettable story of a teenage girl in a year of transformation. Dur e Aziz Amna navigates the choppy waters of adolescence with blistering insight and humour, and exquisitely captures the way we can long for home while yearning to escape it. Rarely does a book sharpen how you see the world around you, but American Fever does just that. It dazzled me on every page."
Not Safe For Work (2022) Isabel Kaplan "I read this steely investigation of workplace ambition and patriarchal complicity in one sitting, my alliances shifting with every page. Funny, insightful, and enraging in all the best ways, NSFW is a fiercely smart debut that turns its gaze back on the reader, forcing you to ask just how far you'd go - and who you'd throw under the bus - for a seat at the table."
Kaleidoscope (2022) Cecily Wong "Kaleidoscope is an ode to the fierce and complicated bond between sisters, to unexpected love, to the pleasures of travel and food and unclaimed afternoons. It traces the way loss can change the shape of a life, honoring the experience of profound grief while, miraculously, reminding us of the beauty to be found in surviving. Intricate, gorgeously written, deeply moving -- I loved this book."
Immediate Family (2021) Ashley Nelson Levy "This gorgeous debut opens with a request: the narrator's younger brother, Danny, has asked her to give a speech at his wedding. From there, the story unspools into an elegant, intellectual, and heartrending examination of the bonds and silence of a family complexly expanded-and completed-by Danny's transracial adoption. A stirring novel by a writer with uncanny insight and sensitivity, Immediate Family asks urgent questions about belonging, what makes a family, and the horizons of love. It moved me deeply."
Bewilderness (2021) Karen Tucker "Karen Tucker's debut novel Bewilderness captures the relentless tug of addiction--to a person, to a substance, to a feeling--with wrenching honesty and insight. This fierce, heartbreaking story of female friendship and loss--narrated by the wise, sharply funny Irene--had me riveted from the first page. Read it, read it, read it."
Something Unbelievable (2021) Maria Kuznetsova "Something Unbelievable is a high-wire feat of imagination and heart, told by two unforgettable women. It deftly chronicles the blurry days of new motherhood, the way our family stories echo across generations, and the messy power of matrilineal bonds with wisdom and tenderness and hard-won humor. I loved it."
What's Mine and Yours (2021) Naima Coster "Naima Coster's What's Mine and Yours moves from moment to moment of startling grace. This expansive, generous novel tackles big themes - systemic racism, the reverberations of gun violence, class inequity - but it always feels thrillingly personal. Multiple times, it moved me to tears. An exquisite and vital portrait of family, place, and the bonds that transform our lives, What's Mine and Yours is more than a beautiful read - it's an essential one, destined to be talked about for years to come as a book that saw the world and spoke the truth with tenderness, wisdom, and love."
We Play Ourselves (2021) Jen Silverman "A fiercely smart and wildly entertaining exploration of artistic ambition, and what happens when the hunger for fame infects an artist's desire to create something true . . . a uniquely potent take on female rage and competition that also gorgeously evokes the challenge of developing an authentic self when everything we do can be exploited as content. I loved this book and couldn't put it down."
The House on Fripp Island (2020) Rebecca Kauffman "Rebecca Kauffman has long been one of my favorite writers, and The House on Fripp Island is her best novel yet ... Kauffman's latest is a rare and gripping combination of gloriously observed prose and three hundred pages of pure suspense. I loved it."
My Dark Vanessa (2020) Kate Elizabeth Russell "My Dark Vanessa destroyed me. This moving, ferocious story of an all-consuming relationship between a teenager and her teacher traces not just a stolen girlhood, but the aftershocks that haunt trauma survivors years into the future. Gripping, stunningly written, and important . . . I’ve been waiting for this book."
Hex (2020) Rebecca Dinerstein Knight "Hex is sexy, unhinged, revelatory, so smart it gives the reader whiplash. It works on you like the poisonous plants that wind through the story line, until you’re as obsessed and intoxicated as the vivid characters that make up this love hexagon gone fascinatingly and beautifully wrong. I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun reading a book or was so impressed by the wizardry of the language."
Trust Exercise (2019) Susan Choi "I can't remember the last time I had such a visceral reaction to a book, or was so dazzled by a writer's inventiveness with structure. Susan Choi is a master and Trust Exercise should be on every human's reading list. A perfect knockout, with profound things to say about art-making, adolescence, and consent."
Baby of the Family (2019) Maura Roosevelt "I can't believe Maura Roosevelt's big-hearted, deliciously readable novel Baby of the Family is a debut. This is a wise and soaring book about family secrets and the price of privilege, by a writer with profound insight, immense talent, and a brilliant future."
