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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.

The upcoming March for Science is in many ways a March for Democracy, and if you like freedom and equality, or at least what’s left of them, you should march in support of science.

St. Paul resident Caitlin Bailey is the winner of the 2017 Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry. Her manuscript, Solve for Desire, was chosen from more than two hundred collections of poets across the Upper Midwest by this year’s independent judge, Srikanth Reddy. Bailey will receive $10,000 as well as publication by Milkweed Editions. She is the sixth recipient of this annual prize.

We are pleased to announce the finalists of the 2017 Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry! Presented in partnership by Milkweed Editions and the Lindquist & Vennum Foundation, the Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry seeks to support outstanding poets residing in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota and bring their work to a national stage. This year, we received more than 200 submissions.

As part of “Because We Come From Everything: Poetry & Migration,” the first formalized programming of the Poetry Coalition, Milkweed Editions, Coffee House Press, Graywolf Press, and Birds, LLC have partnered to curate a selection of poems on the theme of migration. Installment #4: Ana Božičevic’s “Migration,” from Joy of Missing Out.

We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of Letters from Max, a book including the correspondence between Max Ritvo and Sarah Ruhl. Letters from Max tells the story of the relationship between a young poet diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma and a celebrated playwright who began as his teacher and became, over the course of an extended correspondence, his friend, and finally, his student.

As part of “Because We Come From Everything: Poetry & Migration,” the first formalized programming of the Poetry Coalition, Milkweed Editions, Coffee House Press, Graywolf Press, and Birds, LLC have partnered to curate a selection of poems on the theme of migration. Installment #3: Chris Santiago’s “Tula,” from Tula.