Alexandra Kleeman is a NYC-based writer of fiction and nonfiction, and a PhD candidate in Rhetoric at UC Berkeley. Her fiction has been published in The Paris Review, Zoetrope: All-Story, Conjunctions, Guernica, and Gulf Coast, among others. Nonfiction essays and reportage have appeared in Tin House, n 1, and The Guardian. Her work has received scholarships and grants from Bread Loaf, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Santa Fe Art Institute, and ArtFarm Nebraska. She is the author of the forthcoming debut novel You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine (Harper, 2015) and Intimations (Harper, 2016), a short story collection.
Elegy, Southwest (2025) Madeleine Watts "Full of grit and a vivid, tender affection for the environments of the American West, Watts' urgent novel weaves a lush landscape of grief and solace. I've rarely seen a writer capture the atmosphere of climate change and loss so vividly, or the frenzied urge to leap into some form of action--all in prose that kept me glued to its pages right to the bittersweet end."
The Nude (2024) C Michelle Lindley "Thrillingly taut and magnetically told, The Nude pries apart the pristine veneer of classical art and allows something sublimely twisted to emerge. Lindley has a gift for rendering the contours and shadows of her characters, and for helping the reader to peer more deeply into the unknown."
The Sky Was Ours (2024) Joe Fassler "Infused with wonder and keen insight onto our shared world, Fassler has crafted a tender, questing ode to impossible dreams, and to the fragile but very real possibilities they open up in us. Rooted in our era of climate crisis and disillusionment but reaching out for something liberatory, it's the rare book that serves as both a provocation and a balm."
The Extinction of Irena Rey (2024) Jennifer Croft "Generous and strange, funny and disconcerting, The Extinction of Irena Rey is a playground for the mind and an entrancing celebration of the sociality of reading, writing, and translation written by a master practitioner of all three."
About Uncle (2024) Rebecca Gisler "Wry and funny and rich in strange new forms of discomfort, About Uncle is a slim volume that cuts deep, revealing the soft ligaments of family relations and letting them gleam under the light."
Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind (2023) Molly McGhee "Molly McGhee is a fearlessly inventive and exquisitely poised writer, one who knows how to aim right at the jugular of today's optimization-obsessed technocratic capitalism. Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind is trippy, incisive, and, most importantly, riotously funny."
Rouge (2023) Mona Awad "There is nobody else like Mona Awad, daring enough to plunge her hands--rings and all--into the viscera of story and discover an unsettling beauty within. Rouge is her most magnetic work yet, a thrilling dystopian romp that knows that beneath the glossy, aspirational veneer of self-care lurks the same old gothic abyss."
The Men Can't Be Saved (2023) Ben Purkert "Funny, witty, and incisor-sharp, Purkert nails down the hypocrisies of modern masculinity and capitalism with the graceful hand of a poet. This novel says so much so well about the absurd moment in which we, grudgingly, live."
Hangman (2023) Maya Binyam "Daring, intellectually rich, and unsettlingly hilarious, Hangman is the rare book agile enough to balance the surreality and painfully rigid actuality of life. We have a powerful new voice in Maya Binyam, one who knows how to make a story sing."
Emergency (2023) Kathleen Alcott "Skillfully wrought and possessed of an exquisite eye for detail, this marvel of a collection contains enough insight and wisdom to fill several books. Kathleen Alcott proves again that she is one of her generation's sharpest and most gifted writers, with her hand over the beating heart of our complicated, crisis-ridden nation."
Lucky Dogs (2023) Helen Schulman "Crackling with wit and daring insight, Lucky Dogs is a sharp-toothed exploration of trauma - the way it rewrites the soul, and its catastrophic fallout. Schulman understands the choreography of betrayal and risk like no other, skillfully mapping the hidden corners of her characters' hearts."
The Thick and the Lean (2023) Chana Porter "Decadent and richly imagined, The Thick and the Lean topples expectations and skillfully re-maps vice and virtue, indulgence and shame as we know them. This book is wildly new and deliciously satisfying, and Porter is one of our moment's most original seers."
First Comes Summer (2023) Maria Hesselager "Marvelously imagined and fiercely real, First Comes Summer has a tender brutality to it that feels timeless and fresh at the same time. Engrossing, primal, and very very beautiful."
Cousins (2023) Aurora Venturini "Brimming with life, humor, and a vital twist of darkness, Venturini's English-language debut marks the arrival of a singular voice with a sharp, visceral approach to story. Reading Cousins is like being inside the belly of a wild, rambunctious beast, going where it goes, exhilarated no matter how perilous the journey."
Y/N (2023) Esther Yi "Sumptuous, precise, and full of pulsing, startling life, Yi captures with finesse the rhythms of internet voyeurism, the corporeality of parasocial desire, and the very heartbeat of contemporary longing."
The Last Catastrophe (2023) Allegra Hyde "Dazzling, inventive, and glinting with dark humor, Allegra Hyde's stories stare apocalypse straight in the eye and find precious glimmers of grace therein. This enthralling collection speaks powerfully to our time, and to those times that are still to come."
Cursed Bread (2023) Sophie Mackintosh "Intoxicating, sumptuous, and savage, Cursed Bread has a gothic sensibility that is entirely original. In Mackintosh's hands, the strange, compulsive machinations of desire become luminous and ghastly all at once."
The Women Could Fly (2022) Megan Giddings "Born of a radical imagination and executed with piercing elegance and skill, The Women Could Fly recalls legendary works of dystopian fiction but casts a spell all its own. Giddings is a rare and utterly original voice bridging the speculative and the all-too-real."
The Midcoast (2022) Adam White "Vividly drawn and movingly told, The Midcoast is a searching, honest, and evocative portrait of human relationships, hometown secrets, and the hidden machinations of privilege. Adam White's debut enthralls, a modern classic from a bold and insightful new voice in fiction."
Little Rabbit (2022) Alyssa Songsiridej "Scintillating and seductive, almost unbearably perceptive, Little Rabbit announces the arrival of a brilliant new voice in literature, one who knows how to make the body sing."
Acts of Service (2022) Lillian Fishman "Taut, thorny, and sublimely fraught, Acts of Service stares straight into the white-hot center of desire with a cool, incisive eye. This book is electric."
Violets (2022) Kyung-Sook Shin "Kyung-Sook Shin has a way of seeing past the smooth surface of societal appearance and into the fragile, obscure psychological space that lies just beneath, where her characters ache in ways that feel both recognizable and possessed of deep insight. I don't know if I've ever read a book that so masterfully captures the subtle desperation of seeking a desire that can be your own in a fast-changing world."
Happy for You (2022) Claire Stanford "Philosophical, tender, and full of dazzling observations, Claire Stanford has written a fiercely insightful portrait of interiority in the time of self-optimizing apps and social media. Reading it is an awakening, a brisk infusion of life and feeling."
Portrait of an Unknown Lady (2022) María Gainza "Vividly detailed and saturated with intricate feeling, Gainza's novel is an engrossing exploration of authenticity, obsession, and the enveloping allure of art."
Hourglass (2022) Keiran Goddard "Evocative, ecstatic, and saturated with off-kilter wit, Hourglass renders heartbreak as both vividly, luminously particular, and intensely, intimately familiar. There are lines from this remarkable book etched all over my memory, indelible."
Be Here to Love Me at the End of the World (2022) Sasha Fletcher "This book roils with beauty, with enthusiasm, with love for both the miniscule and oversized wonders of the world, it holds the griefs and violence of our moment tenderly in its outstretched hands and asks you, the reader, what we should do about them. Sasha Fletcher is a rare gem of a writer, and this novel is one of a kind."
Win Me Something (2021) Kyle Lucia Wu "Taut, engrossing, and masterfully observed, Win Me Something announces a powerful and luminescent new literary voice in Kyle Lucia Wu."
Agatha of Little Neon (2021) Claire Luchette "Agatha of Little Neon is the rare kind of book that reads like a transmission from a person you don’t know, but who is already nestled close to your heart. Full of small devotions, pith and vigor, and a bounty of tender feeling for a world that is not quite as full of grace as it could be, this bold debut shines with a light all its own and announces Claire Luchette as a true original and a voice to follow closely."
Intimacies (2021) Katie Kitamura "Saturated with enigmatic longing, Intimacies peels back the layers of sympathy, antipathy, and morality that both connect and divide us from others, unearthing something precious beneath. Katie Kitamura is a revelatory interpreter of the human heart, in all its brilliance and obscurity."
The Atmospherians (2021) Alex McElroy "Gutsy, hilarious, and fully saturated with the absurd spirit of our times, The Atmospherians is a novel about the tangle of capitalism, narcissism, and masculinity that have defined our cultural moment. McElroy is a master excavator of the murky innards that drive us, a satirist with an eye for the tender parts that make us tick."
Her Here (2021) Amanda Dennis "Evocative and meditative, Her Here is a ghost story without a ghost, a marvel of incantatory wit. Amanda Dennis weaves a mesmerizing web around her subject, drawing the reader into an intricate, volatile mystery whose end is always and never within reach."
Milk Fed (2021) Melissa Broder "Milk Fed hits that sweet spot where pleasure and tension intersect, where the sumptuous exploration of sexuality and spirit meets the rigidities of culture and society. Strange and surreal, Broder's writing is a marvel of wit, heart, and thoughtful curiosity about the body and mind and how these things can overflow their boundaries to become utterly new."
Land of Big Numbers (2021) Te-Ping Chen "An intricately constructed, tenderly observed collection—the sort of stories that skillfully transport you into the daily experience of characters so real, who speak to you with such grace and tangible presence, that you could almost reach out and touch them. Through the lens of these different voices, each vividly alive, Te-Ping Chen shows us how much life, loss, and quiet pleasure exists in the world, just out of view."
True Love (2020) Sarah Gerard "Sharp as a knife and wickedly insightful, TRUE LOVE is a ferocious portrait of love, hate, and artistic self-definition in the 21st century. Life, with all its bruises, wounds, and unsightly rashes, becomes real and touchable in Sarah Gerard's masterful hands."
Sensation Machines (2020) Adam Wilson "With remarkable grace and wit, Adam Wilson puts the stethoscope to our national heart and diagnoses our deepest ills."
Hex (2020) Rebecca Dinerstein Knight "Hex is neon-bright and guided by a fierce, scintillating interest in the innermost chambers of the human heart, where melancholic and bright humors mingle together. In every line you hear the voice of a writer who knows how to lead you expertly into the place where the story is most alive: spooky, shifty, darkly funny, and delectable in every way."
The New Me (2019) Halle Butler "Halle Butler has a way of looking at our 21st-century neoliberalist condition that simultaneously exposes its brutality and renders that same brutality absurd, hilarious, fizzy with humor. She's an incisive, curmudgeonly bard of the uniquely precarious times we live in, and it is crucial that you read her immediately."
The Lonesome Bodybuilder (2018) Yukiko Motoya "Playful and eerie and utterly enchanting, Yukiko Motoya's stories are like fun-house mazes built to get lost in, where familiar shapes and features from the everyday world are revealed to you as if for the first time, twisted into marvelously odd shapes. These eleven stories possess a mundanely magical logic all their own, surprising and entirely absorbing."
Open Me (2018) Lisa Locascio "Captivating and darkly clever, Locasio's debut melds self-discovery and self-abnegation with raw, muscular grace. By turns beguiling, guileless, and penetratingly felt, this book seethes with eroticism, both physical and emotional—you won't dare to pry yourself away from it."
Laura & Emma (2018) Kate Greathead "A big-hearted book, tenderly intelligent and mirthfully incisive in its exploration of family, class, and the difficulty of reconciling our own natures with the way we nurture others. In Greathead's capable hands, Laura & Emma become luminously real, a lens through which the rarefied, often contradictory world of elite New York comes charmingly alive."
What We Lose (2017) Zinzi Clemmons "Wise and tender and possessed of a fiercely insightful intimacy, What We Lose is a lyrical ode to the complexities of race, love, illness, parenthood, and the hairline fractures they leave behind. Zinzi Clemmons has gifted the reader a rare and thoughtful emotional topography, a map to the mirror regions of their own heart."
