Of course, we love the iconic New York writers (we’re looking at you, Jonathan Lethem, no matter how long you reside on the other coast), but we don’t need to tell you to read them, do we? Creative types continue to flock to the city—snapping up NYC’s affordable apartments, we bet—and constantly create stimulating, original work. So who says every good story has already been written? These authors prove otherwise.
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She’s a Baruch College professor, a books editor, a journalist and curator of a Brooklyn reading series: a genuine Renaissance woman for the 21st century. You may not have caught word of her debut novel in 2004 but her latest, Into the Go-Slow, which addresses the legacy of the Black Power Movement and the troubled bond between African Americans and Africans, is already causing a stir within the literary community.
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With essays, fiction and poetry appearing everywhere from the New York Times to New York Magazine, it’s possible you’ve already read Gerard’s work. The multi-talented Brooklynite also garnered attention when she—way before Rumer Willis—walked topless through New York, an experience she translated into a profoundly moving chapbook, Things I Told My Mother. Gerard’s debut novel, Binary Star, will be published early next year—here’s an excerpt that illustrates her singular style.
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Trust us: All the cool kids are reading Hodson’s recent chapbook, Pity the Animal, a lyrical essay that explores the question and answer, “How much can a body endure? Almost everything.” She’s also been a PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellow, a collaborator with the Marina Abramović Institute’s Immaterial project, and as an examination of stuff, inventories all of her possessions on Tumblr. What will she come up with next?
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The number one breakout debut of 2014, Lacey’s Nobody Is Ever Missing reads like the work of a master: Effortless yet complex and utterly engaging as the author recounts the emotional breakdown of her protagonist. She’s also deeply engaged in the Brooklyn community as a co-founder of 3B, a local bed & breakfast, and writes consistently beautiful short stories and essays on topics like selling her eggs and the loneliness of the female body.
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Poet, professor, critic, novelist, Lerner does it all—and does it well. Even before his debut novel Leaving the Atocha Station hit all the big best-of lists in 2011, he was racking up awards and fellowships as a poet, and he brings that meticulous yet lyrical voice to his equally stellar fiction. Have no doubt, Lerner’s latest, 10:04, will again be praised as one of the best books of the year.
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Author Justin Taylor tipped us off to this one in our recent interview, remarking, “[Jess Row’s] Your Face in Mine [is]maybe the best new novel I’ve read this year, and one of those books that seems to have appeared at the exact moment that the culture needs it to exist.” Row has already published two collections of stories, and the acclaim for his first foray into the longer form assures us that he deserves our attention.
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