Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America’s Overdose Crisis by Beth Macy, pictured above, is on Esquire magazine’s list of the 20 most anticipated books for the Summer of 2022. It is due for release on August 16th. It also makes Boston.com’s list of 24 Books You Should Read This Summer According to Local Experts. And Book Riot’s What’s the Buzz?: 40 of the Best Summer Reads for 2022. It also made Powell’s Book Preview for August.
The Book Woman’s Daughter by Kim Michelle Richardson was #13 on the New York Times Best-Seller list for May 22 in the Combined Print and E-Book Fiction category.
The Book Woman’s Daughter also made the (Out Now) section of Deep South Magazine 2022 Summer Reading List as did The Grand Design: A Novel of Dorothy Draper by Joy Callaway, set mainly at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia. Their forthcoming anticipated books include Shifty’s Boys by Chris Offutt (June) set in Eastern Kentucky and The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda (July), set in Western North Carolina.
The Bitter Southerner's 2022 Summer Reading Roundup of already published books includes Perfect Black by Crystal Wilkinson, Living Queer History: Remembrance and Belonging in a Southern City by Gregory Samantha Rosenthal, and Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place by Neema Avashia.
Ron Houchin died on May 14th at the age of 75. He lived in South Port, Ohio, across the Ohio River from Huntington, West Virginia, where he grew up. He earned both a B.A. and an M.A. Ed. from Marshall University in Huntington and taught English for 30 years at Fairland High School in Ohio. He published ten volumes of poetry, a short story collection, and a youth novel. His last book of poems, Talking to Shadows, was published by Louisiana State University Press, widely considered the most prestigious poetry publisher in the South. He not only was a speaker and workshop leader in Ireland, but a volume of selected poems was published there. He was also a workshop leader in Prague, Key West, and Hindman, Kentucky.