A Chat With Nine 2024 Debut Novelists—and Hear Them Read!
by Christa Davis
What if I told you that as a writer, rejection is part of the territory, part of the learning landscape? Yes, you will only be rejected if you submit your work, but you’ll learn a lot in the process, and you’ll only get published if you submit it.
In our last blog post, Lynn Stansbury shared her experience so far with the Poets & Writers’ 2023 “Get the Word Out cohort. The program introduces debut authors to the nitty-gritty of being published: publicity and marketing. Today we will introduce you to Lynn’s fellow writers in the program. Spoiler alert: most of these talented, award-winning authors were rejected many times before their work was accepted.
DON’T MISS this Friday’s Poets & Writers “Get the Word Out Fiction Reading” on February 23, 2024, at 7:00 PM ET.
Kathya Alexander - Keep A’ Livin’
Kathya Alexander, author of Keep A’Livin’, “didn’t get published for years.” Her debut novel-in-verse is a captivating story about a young girl’s life during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. She says Keep A’Livin’ “shows activism as more than just a few famous protest speeches, the costs to those who dedicate themselves to activist work, and the passion that drives us ever forward to a better, more just future.”
Kathya's advice to emerging writers: “Accept rejection as part of the process. And even though it’s hard, don’t take it personal. Just keep doing it over and over and over, and one day somebody will want exactly what you have to offer.”
Kathya Alexander’s plays, storytelling, and life as a teaching artist explore the beauty and complexity of contemporary African American life, the rich infusion of Black culture into American life, and what it means to be Black in America. Keep A’Livin’ is available for pre-order from Auntie Lute Press.
Christina Cooke - Broughtupsy
Christina Cooke’s debut novel Broughtupsy follows twenty-year-old Akú who, after years of rejection and separation, returns home to Jamaica and finds hope of reconciliation of who she is to her very conservative family and home culture, with the help of a brash young woman from the streets of Kingston.
Christina says rejections do not define your ability as a writer. “Sometimes it’s simply, ‘no, your piece isn’t a good fit for this issue even though it’s so lovely . . .’ Over time, you’ll develop the stamina and tenacity to see yourself through.”
Born in Jamaica, now a Canadian citizen, Christina lives and writes in New York City. Visit her at christinajcooke.com. Broughtupsy is available now from Catapult.
Alisa Alering - Smothermoss
Alisa Alering’s first fiction submission never published. “Nor was the next or the next or the next. I had no idea what I was doing.”
The road to publishing took many years for Alisa, but their debut novel, Smothermoss, “explores themes that emerge from an Appalachian childhood, caught up in the interplay between human and other sensibilities in the forest. Everyone has their own opinion.”
Alisa’s advice to emerging writers: “Listen. Not just to teachers and successful writers but to your inner voice. Stay curious.”
Award-winning writer, editor, writing coach, and former librarian, Alisa Alering writes fiction for adults and children and non-fiction that explores science, technology and the future. They live in Southern Arizona. Smothermoss is available for pre-order at Tin House.
Lena Valencia - Mystery Lights
“You need to submit work to get published. But the majority of your focus is better spent on what you do have control over: Your writing.”
Lena Valencia’s wisdom draws from her writing—her submissions, rejections and lessons learned. “Publication is wonderful for a writing career, but I believe that a focus on craft, reading, and community will help any writer build a truly sustainable writing life.”
Mystery Lights, Lena’s debut fiction collection, grapples with terrors familiar and fantastic. From the all-too-real horror of a sexual predator on a college campus to a lost sister transformed by cave-dwelling creatures, these stories floodlight women and girls caught at the crossroads of mundane daily life and existential dread.
Lena Valencia lives in Brooklyn, NY. She is the managing editor and director of educational programming at One Story and the co-host of the reading series Ditmas Lit. Mystery Lights is available for pre-order from Tin House.
Parul Kapur: Inside the Mirror
Set in 1950s Bombay (Mumbai), Parul Kapur’s debut novel, Inside the Mirror, explores female creativity and identity-making at time and in a society that denies women the freedom to shape their own lives, even as that society struggles to assemble the shards of its own identity after two brutal centuries of European colonialism.
Parul’s first fiction submission: “was accepted right off the bat by Wascana Review, leading me to the dangerous belief that publication would come easily . . . I learned soon enough this was a lucky break and I . . . had much to learn about my craft.”
For new writers, Parul says, “Write only about the things you care most deeply about and are most intrigued by.”
Parul Kapur was born in Assam, India, grew up in Connecticut, and holds an MFA from Columbia. Behind the Mirror is available from the University of Nebraska Press.
Jessie Ren Marshall: Women! In! Peril!
Jessie Ren Marshall’s debut story collection, Women! In! Peril!, follows a diverse cast of women—parents and children, queer girlfriends and straight divorcées, bad teachers and horny students, robots and sex workers—who are on the precipice of change and must decide whether to embrace that change or run for cover.
Full of wry humor, sharp social commentary, and an irrepressible sense of hope, Women! In! Peril! is a ferociously feminist reflection on love and the possibility of human growth.
Jessie says the best part about publication is “contact with people who also care about literature . . . it’s such a joy to find like-minded authors, editors, and readers.” She believes that literary magazines are a tremendous benefit for the community. “Not only do lit mags support early career writers, they provide training for undergraduate and graduate students, help to make their institutions a center for the arts, and create a legacy of achievement and community.”
Jessie Ren Marshall lives and writes off the grid on the Island of Hawai’i. Women! In! Peril! can be pre-ordered from Bloomsbury.
Marissa Higgins: A Good Happy Girl
Debutiful’s Adam Vitcavage calls A Good Happy Girl “one of the sexiest, most sensual, and sapphic books in recent memory . . . Come for the tantalizing text but stay for the subtle, soft humane moments in between.”
Award-winning author Marissa Higgins’s debut novel, A Good Happy Girl, considers worlds without men. And women who will do what they can to get what they want. In her exploration of twisted desires, queer domesticity, and the effects of incarceration on the family, Marissa Higgins offers empathy to characters who often don’t receive it. With unsettling results.
Marissa Higgins lives in Washington, DC. A Good Happy Girl can be pre-ordered at Catapult.
Esinam Bediako: Blood on the Brain
“Do your research before submitting your work. Find lit mags you enjoy, publications where you think your writing fits, and submit there. And also, don’t give up . . . your piece will find a home in time.”
Esinam Bediako is a Ghanaian American writer from Detroit. She holds degrees in English/comparative lit, and teaching, and an MFA. She has taught high school English, edited textbooks, served as a secondary school administrator, and, during one nerve-wracking summer, worked as a pharmacy technician.
Esi’s award-winning debut novel, Blood on the Brain, tells the story of a Ghanaian American grad student struggling to confront the challenges in her life. She deals with her problems the best way she knows how—by rushing headlong into new ones—until the pain of all her unresolved trauma finally catches up to her.
Esi lives in Claremont, California with her husband and their two sons, who create stories, videos, and other artwork with enviable speed and imagination. Her essay/poetry chapbook Self-Talk is due out this year from Porkbelly Press. Blood on the Brain can be pre-ordered from Amazon.
Bruna Dantas Lobato: Blue Light Hours
Bruna Dantas Lobato is a fiction writer and translator. Her translation of Stênio Gardel’s The Words that Remain won the 2023 National Book Award for Translated Literature.
In her debut novel, Blue Light Hours, forthcoming in October 2024, Dantas Lobato limns a tender portrait of a mother and a daughter coming of age together four thousand miles apart. In America, a young Brazilian woman starts a new life in a small Vermont liberal arts college. At home a continent away, her lonely mother worries. In nightly video calls, in the Skype-blue light of their computers, they try to tell each other the news, when what’s new is beyond words.
Bruna says, “I’ve been lucky to meet wonderful writers, editors, and readers through the magazines I’ve worked with—including my agent, who found me on the pages of A Public Space.” Her advice to emerging writers: “Stick to it, push yourself to ask the hard questions, revise. Then submit to your favorite journals.”
Bruna was born and raised in Natal, Brazil, and lives in St. Louis, Missouri, in the US, with her partner and pet bunny. For information about Blue Light Hours, due out from Grove Atlantic in October 2024, visit Bruna’s website HERE.
NOW, join the brilliant authors from the Poets & Writers’ 2023 “Get the Word Out" cohort as they perform a live virtual reading to celebrate their achievements. Head over to Poets & Writers to RSVP to the 2024 Get the Word Out Fiction Reading on February 23, 2024, at 7:00 PM ET.