Anton DiSclafani grew up in northern Florida, where she rode horses, competing nationally. She graduated from Emory University and received her MFA from Washington University, where she currently teaches creative writing. She lives in St. Louis.
The Wonder State (2023) Sara Flannery Murphy "The Wonder State is a slippery, twisty tale about friendship, power, and belonging. Sara Flannery Murphy's worlds are never quite what they seem-this one in particular is electrifying and scary and utterly thrilling."
The Catch (2022) Alison Fairbrother "The Catch is an intimate family drama about secrets and what we are willing to do for, or hide from, those we love most. Alison Fairbrother's writing makes her characters, with all their flaws and weaknesses and desires, feel like people you know. Set against the vibrant backdrop of Washington, D.C., The Catch unfurls in entirely unexpected directions and had me utterly engaged from the very first page."
Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance (2022) Alison Espach "In Alison Espach's hands, a teenage girl on the cusp of understanding, a dazzling older sister, and a small Connecticut town become a beautifully described world filled with characters I wanted to meet, characters I still think about. Their trials and tribulations and adolescent longing and awkwardness; their love for each other--it all felt amazingly real. Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance is the rare kind of book that made me both laugh and cry. It is hilarious and moving and deeply felt, and I was sad when it ended."
Leda and the Swan (2021) Anna Caritj "Dark, delicious, and dangerous... Leda's story is electrifying. I read with bated breath, wondering the entire time what would become of the missing girl, what would become of Leda. Caritj evokes a college world that is at once familiar and transporting, thrilling and terrifying. As Leda grapples with crucial, age-old questions about desire and consent, Caritj's plot offers a powerful modern twist."
Lake Life (2020) David James Poissant "Lake Life is a beautifully written, expertly told novel about family and tragedy and love and loss. I was gripped from the very first page, and wanted desperately to know what would become of the Starling family and their lives. David James Poissant captures so beautifully the tangled love between parents and children, and how that love evolves and unfolds over time. That kind of love is not without consequence, and Poissant explores with dazzling prose and insight just how maddening and hopeful the bonds of family can be. Lake Life is a page-turner—I read it in one long sitting, resentful of interruption—and when it ended I mourned the absence of the Starling parents and children and their spouses, and wished them well. I loved this book."
Belladonna (2020) Anbara Salam "Salam writes beautifully about the beguiling nature of desire, and what we're willing to throw into its fire in order to get what it is we believe we want. ... I was utterly captivated, from first page to last."
Shiner (2020) Amy Jo Burns "A story as dark and twisty as the Appalachian mountains where it's set, SHINER is riveting and full of wonder. Amy Jo Burns takes us deep into a land both beautiful and treacherous, where men handle snakes and make moonshine, where woman navigate a world that needs their labor but denies their happiness, and where girls like Wren Bird must decide who to be in a place that wants them to be nothing...SHINER is part love story, part mystery, part family drama, and deeply rooted in place and character. I loved it."
Beheld (2020) TaraShea Nesbit "TaraShea Nesbit's puritans are passionate and vengeful and entrancing. Part mystery, part love story, beautifully told and meticulously researched, Beheld reanimates and complicates the mythologies of America's earliest settlers. I was sad when it ended."
Girl in Snow (2017) Danya Kukafka "Girl in Snow is a haunting, lyrical novel about love, loss, and terror. Reading it felt like entering another world, where things and people - were not as they at first appeared. The world Kukafka so masterfully creates is suspenseful and electrifying; I was willing to follow her wherever she took me."
