Christopher Castellani is the son of Italian immigrants and a native of Wilmington, Delaware. He resides in Boston, where he is the artistic director of Grub Street, one of the country's leading non-profit creative writing centers. He is the author of three critically-acclaimed novels, A Kiss from Maddalena (Algonquin Books, 2003)winner of the Massachusetts Book Award in 2004 The Saint of Lost Things (Algonquin Books, 2005), a BookSense (IndieBound) Notable Book; and All This Talk of Love (Algonquin, 2013), a New York Times Editors' Choice and finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Literary Award. He is currently working on a new novel as well as The Art of Perspective: Who Tells the Story? a collection of essays on writing, forthcoming from Graywolf.
In addition to his work with Grub Street, Christopher is on the faculty and academic board of the Warren Wilson MFA program and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. Christopher was educated at Swarthmore College, received his Masters in English Literature from Tufts University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Boston University. In April 2014, Christopher was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship for fiction.
Isaac (2024) Curtis Garner "Compulsively readable, Isaac is both an entertaining bildungsroman and a hyper-real snapshot of contemporary gay life for an artistically precocious and charmingly naive young man. I rooted for Isaac all the way through, and now I'm rooting for Curtis Garner to write more novels."
The Titanic Survivors Book Club (2024) Timothy Schaffert "Miraculously spared from the tragedy of the Titanic, Yorick embarks on an even more precarious voyage: a love affair. In this clever and high-concept novel, lush with emotion and vivid with period detail, we root for Yorick, in the company of his mysterious and provocative new friends both real and fictional, to grab the reins of fate and change his fortune yet again. What a ride!"
The Divorcees (2024) Rowan Beaird "If Patricia Highsmith and George Cukor teamed up to reimagine Thelma and Louise, it might look something like this smoldering, addictive, and beguiling novel of women on the verge. Whether they're on the verge of dissolution, liberation, or some fraught state in-between, Rowan Beaird captures their becoming in prose that thrums with an anxious and defiant eros. A knockout of a debut."
Followed by the Lark (2024) Helen Humphreys "Followed by the Lark unfolds like friendship itself: the initial surprise, delightful as the first bluebird of spring, followed by the long years and sneakily brief seasons of mutual discoveries, tensions, and shared losses. Helen Humphreys has written a textured, intimate companion to our factual knowledge of Thoreau, and, in the meantime, evoked a longing in this reader for a deeper connection to the natural world. A gem of a book."
How We Named the Stars (2024) Andrés N Ordorica "In How We Named the Stars, Andres N. Ordorica has crafted a radiant and deeply moving novel about the beauty and pain of love-for our partners, our families, and ourselves. An impressive emotional tour de force, and an extraordinary debut."
Speech Team (2023) Tim Murphy "A high school revenge fantasy disguised as a romp, shot through with longing and loss, narrated by a gimlet-eyed gay ringleader? Please and thank you, Tim Murphy."
The Apartment (2023) Ana Menéndez "Ingenious in its construction, intimate in its storytelling, and illuminating in its insights, The Apartment is both an unforgettable reading experience and a fascinating character in itself: like the mysterious stranger next door whose history, hopes, longings, secrets, and surprises thrillingly reveal themselves over time."
Red Clay Suzie (2023) Jeffrey Dale Lofton "Arresting debut... a vivid depiction of a unique childhood that feels universal in its longing."
Meeting in Positano (2021) Goliarda Sapienza "An elegy for a town and time lost, a Jamesian meditation on class and privacy, an intimate and often glamorous account of a charged friendship, a cry of the heart against the dark pull of oblivion—Meeting in Positano is all of these and more. How lucky we are that this potent novel of ideas by Goliarda Sapienza has been rescued and given its place among her singular literary accomplishments."
Leaving Coy's Hill (2021) Katherine A Sherbrooke "Leaving Coy’s Hill is both an intimate, urgent confession by a mother to a daughter and a powerful corrective to the biography of one of our country’s most consequential yet under appreciated reformers. Katherine Sherbrooke has brought the daring, dauntless, silver-throated Lucy Stone to vivid life, giving us a thoroughly modern heroine whose bold vision has still yet to be fully realized more than a hundred years after her passing. An inspiring, provocative read."
The Guncle (2021) (Guncle, book 1) Steven Rowley "Patrick, the hero of Steven Rowley’s effervescent, utterly charming, and affecting novel, is the dearest friend you haven’t met yet. You’ll root for his two adorable charges as they navigate a terrible loss, and for Patrick’s own heart to make a long-overdue comeback. A cleverly subversive story about what makes a family."
Three O'Clock in the Morning (2021) Gianrico Carofiglio "Reading this wondrous book is like wandering the streets of a bewitching foreign city, highly attuned to its pleasures and tensions, thrilled by its freedom and possibility. I was deeply moved by its tenderness, its honesty, and, most of all, by the unlikely journey father and son take to discover each other as if for the first time. Carofiglio is a master of voice and atmosphere, which gives this elegiac novel its satisfying and emotional punch."
With or Without You (2020) Caroline Leavitt "With or Without You is a compulsively readable novel of artistic ambition and the various betrayals lovers and friends both endure and inflict on each other. It also asks fascinating questions about the stability of the self and our capacity—erhaps even our secret desire?—to reinvent ourselves. Caroline Leavitt is a born storyteller, and this is one knockout of a story."
Impersonation (2020) Heidi Pitlor "With refreshing humor and an endearing charm all her own, Heidi Pitlor channels the narrative slyness of Rachel Cusk and the political acumen of Rebecca Solnit to deliver this zeitgeisty novel about the struggles of anonymity, accountability, modern-day mothering, and making ends meet in the gig economy. As both loss and possibility swirl around our lost but scrappy heroine, you can't help but root for her to claim her own voice and personhood. A smart behind-the-scenes tour of the murky world of publishing, politics, and the good people who get caught in the cross-fire."
The Paris Hours (2020) Alex George "The Paris Hours is a kaleidoscope of a novel: intricately constructed, glittering with color and history, playful, poignant, and a joy to hold in your hands. I was transported, seduced, and ultimately moved by spending this day with George's rich and big-hearted imagination."
Only the River (2020) Anne Raeff "Read Only The River as much for its lush, seductive prose as for its impressive historical and geographical sweep. Read it for its resonant depictions of the high costs of war, and for its ironic and surprising collisions of past and present. Anne Raeff's personal investment in these intersecting stories, and her love for each of her searching, unforgettable characters, comes through on every page. Just read it!"
This Terrible Beauty (2020) Katrin Schumann "Deeply relevant to our current times, This Terrible Beauty explores the lengths to which we will go to find love and the sacrifices we make for family and community. I fell in love with these characters and came away heartened and hopeful."
A Bend in the Stars (2019) Rachel Barenbaum "With the timelessness of a folk tale, the twists and turns of an adventure story, and the pleasures of a science thriller, A Bend in the Stars both fills the reader's heart and keeps it beating fast. This novel's strong gravitational pull draws you powerfully alongside Miri and Vanya in their harrowing quests, and its emotional payoff makes you never want to let them go."
The Garden Party (2018) Grace Dane Mazur "In her feast of a novel, delicious with secrets and longings and the mischief of both angels and demons, Grace Dane Mazur gives the reader the best seat at the table on a most fateful night. As two families stumble toward union, playing their various parts, only we can see into each of their hearts and minds, learning--thrillingly--what they mean to each other, and what's been left behind."
Cottonmouths (2017) Kelly J Ford "Filled with foreboding and anguished desire, Cottonmouths is a perfectly-paced drama of the perils of loyalty, love, and homecoming. A terrific novel by an exciting new queer voice."
(b.1972)
