Publications

Memoir / Touchstone, 2014

A first-person account of the making of the cult classic film by actor Cary Elwes.

Photography / Kehrer Verlag, 2014

A photographic portrait of a neighborhood in prolonged crisis, emblematic of the many regions throughout the US that hover between decay and possibility.

Poetry / Yale University, 2015

Elkins depicts violence, poverty, and loneliness in the Deep South, but also the compassion, generosity, and hope that aid those condemned by their “otherness.”

Novel / Fig Tree, 2015

A psychological thriller set in pre-9/11 Brooklyn in which a family’s dark history and an estranged son’s attempt to find meaning converge.

Novel / Little, Brown and Company, 2014

After 15-year-old Polly sets fire to the family farm, she and her brother find shelter in an 1840s Shaker community. Life takes an even bigger turn when she is unexpectedly exalted as their mystical “Visionist.”

Poetry / University of Pittsburgh, 2014

In this house, Mother has a reset button and servants blend into the furniture. The body is examined as a machine, a repository of childhood myth, and a window to the spiritual world.

Children’s / Bloomsbury USA Children’s, 2015

A loving father reveals his baby’s fantastic feats (smiling, babbling, eating a banana), bringing adults joy and awe. Who remains unimpressed? Baby’s big brother.

Biography / Knopf, 2015

An investigation into the crimes of Chucky Taylor, the American son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, and the first person to be convicted by a US court under the Convention Against Torture.

Anthropology / Orchid, 2014

Sold into slavery and nearly wiped out by disease and volcanoes, the extraordinary tribal Asian people known as “Negrito” were once considered doomed. Mirante journeys into their remaining lands and reveals their story.

Novel / Fig Tree, 2015

Over the summer of 1994, six damaged lives become entangled and changed forever on an Israeli kibbutz.

History / Pulp/Zest, 2014

At the turn of the 20th century, 19-year-old Alice plans to pass as a man to marry her 17-year-old fiancée. But when their love letters are discovered, Victorian America finds itself riveted by a tragic murder mystery.

History / Peter Lang, 2014

Based on Stewart’s thesis in SLC’s Women’s History Program, a Caribbean immigrant founds a successful gambling operation, champions black pride, and speaks up for Harlem residents.

Children’s Nonfiction / Dragoneagle, 2014

Kalpana Chawla left India to study aerospace engineering and became the first Asian American woman in space.

Travel Guide / W. W. Norton & Company, 2014

Updated and expanded, the third edition of this handbook is the perfect companion for self-guided walking tours and an excellent source of information on the internationally acclaimed architecture of Chicago.

Poetry / What Books, 2014

Deft and fearless, playful and savage, Blauner’s surreal poems depict forlorn dreamers utterly alone in their worlds.

Memoir / Scribner, 2014

A New York Times bestseller, this memoir recounts the six years Butler spent caring for her declining parents, her struggle to give them “good deaths,” and the health care forces that stood in the way.

Young Adult / Texas Tech University, 2015

In 1950s Manhattan, two middle school friends search for their identities and triumph over popular prejudice.