Haŋ (hello) Milkweed community, my name is Kachina Yeager and I am the Editorial Fellow here at Milkweed Editions. Our team is delighted to share with you the cover for Debra Magpie Earling’s forthcoming reissue of Perma Red—out August 2022. I was lucky enough to get to chat with Debra Magpie Earling about this remarkable novel, and I’m so excited to share that conversation with our wider community!
Hello, friends, and welcome to another edition of Deep Cuts! In this series, we dive in with some of our authors and discuss the behind-the-scenes work that goes into the composition and production of their books. This month, we’re excited to chat with Deirdre McNamer about Aviary, a brightly-plumed spin on a who-done-it due out later this year in April.
With senior residence Pheasant Run at its nexus, Aviary explores an extensive cast of overlapping lives—many of whom feel themselves forgotten. But McNamer invites us to slow down and appreciate the depth of these lives, to consider the mysteries that connect them. What we learn by residing…
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This month, Daley offers three bold and incisive books that confront the ominous portents of hurricane season in the Gulf South, family, and the whole big, messy project of America in equal measure.
My reading of novels is often framed by a theme, be it an idea or location or era. Lately, that theme is novels that contain both sadness and humor.
Like all of us at Milkweed Books, I like to read across genres, but I have a soft spot for books that are themselves cross-genre, and particularly those that mess up the lines delineating what is and isn’t fiction. The following selections are a few such titles I’ve loved. One I received at a party, one I bought on a whim at another independent bookstore (shout-out to Subtext Books, my neighborhood store), and another I read after seeing it in the social media feeds of a few other trusted bookstores and booksellers. I wouldn’t normally include two books from the same press, but The Gift comes out in early May and I want everyone to read it right away, so Coffee House gets two this time.
This month I picked three books I eyed for a while before finally picking up—ones I knew I would want to devote an entire, uninterrupted afternoon to read. Daley and I sometimes joke about how we aren’t sure whether we like books or whether we are just so haunted by them we can’t let them go. These are three I definitely enjoyed while reading but, more importantly, they are books that have been lodged in my brain for weeks, ones I find myself wanting to return to and talk about and share.
Milkweed Editions is deeply saddened to report that Richard Wagamese passed away in his home on Friday, March 10, 2017. He was 61. Wagamese was the author of more than 15 books ranging across fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, including the novels Medicine Walk, Dream Wheels, and Indian Horse. Much of his work drew from his own struggle with family dysfunction that he attributed to the isolating government- and church-run schools, attended by his parents and extended family members. Wagamese called himself a second-generation survivor of these experiences.
We’re proud to be part of the independent publishing community, promoting titles that breed independent minds, break the mold, and dare to be different. In support of our fellow independents, we’ve teamed up with a few presses to draw attention to big books from smaller publishers across the country. This month, we’re celebrating International Women’s Day. What books are you reading to celebrate? Join the conversation and use the hashtags #ireadindie and #InternationalWomensDay.
