Hyper-contemporary literature: brand-new writing
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Gizzi the space man: Peter Gizzi’s ‘Fierce Elegy’
In Fierce Elegy (2023), Peter Gizzi’s 2025 T.S. Eliot prize-winning collection of poetry, the poet does many astounding things. These include his use of form, the contiguous suturing of images, and—as I will briefly show—his elaboration of space. Spatial forebear While I was reading Fierce Elegy I was reminded of the early modern English poet,…
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Historical fiction, intersectionality, and secrecy: Yael van der Wouden’s ‘The Safekeep’
There’s a moment, just one page, in Yael van der Wouden’s The Safekeep (Penguin, 2024)—winner of last year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction—that gathers its narrative threads and holds them together. The queer, the racial, the Jewish threads. Thin threads and thick, stronger and weaker threads. One page where they intersect and where the reader can…
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Quotidian narrative in David Szalay’s ‘Flesh’
David Szalay’s ‘Flesh’ won the 2025 Booker Prize. It was praised by the judges for its spare style. In this blog post, I argue that there is a contest taking place in the story between the narrative style, resistant to emotion, and the protagonist’s steady attempt to become fully emotional, fully alive. Ultimately, the narrative…
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Past it? Speed, simulacra, and celebrity in Rebecca F. Kuang’s ‘Yellowface’
Rebecca F. Kuang’s ‘Yellowface’ captivated readers, spending 12 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and winning the British Book Awards’ fiction prize. A sharp satire on celebrity, publishing, and cultural appropriation, it explores themes of fleeting fame and postmodern identity. Is Yellowface timely—or already dated?
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The careful book in V.V. Ganeshananthan’s ‘Brotherless Night’
V.V. Ganeshananthan’s Brotherless Night (Penguin, 2023) won the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction, highlighting its powerful storytelling. Set during Sri Lanka’s civil war, the novel follows Sashi, a Tamil medical student, as she navigates care, ethics, and history in a time of violence. A masterpiece of careful, compassionate writing.
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Parallel forms in Victoria Chang’s ‘with my back to the world’
Content warning: this post discusses suicide Victoria Chang’s with my back to the world won the 2024 Forward Prize for Poetry. It’s a collection of poetry that is ekphrastic at its core: all the poems respond to fine art. Chang is only looking at one painter throughout the collection. Agnes Martin was an American abstract…
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