It’s hard to believe A Bend in the Stars (Grand Central, 2019) is Rachel Barenbaum’s debut. This beautifully written literary novel is many things—a historical thriller about physics, a gritty look at the plight of Russian Jews in 1914 Russia,…
It’s hard to start to write. No matter the number of chapters or scenes or even emails I’ve written, when I have a blank page in front of me, I stop in my tracks. I see half a dozen different…
More people than I can count have told me that Chip Cheek is an amazing–legendary–Grub Street instructor and even better writer, and now that I’ve read his debut novel, Cape May (Celadon, 2019) I get it. Set in 1957, newlyweds…
At the Muse and the Marketplace conference a few days ago, someone said American publishers were looking for stories not filtered through the American lens. I almost laughed out loud. Well said, but it was a false statement. I wasn’t…
Oyinkan Braithwaite’s breathtaking novel, My Sister, the Serial Killer was published last November (Doubleday, 2018) and while the title caught my attention I picked it up because again and again I heard someone call it their favorite book of the…
Christopher Castellani, Grub Street’s extraordinary artistic director, is a critically acclaimed author who has won numerous awards and unending praise because his writing is as brilliant as his heart is large. Personally, I’ve never met another writer with his combination…