The last few years, I wrote and wrote. A lot. And read, too, but certainly not as much as I wanted to. This last year, though, was different. I was working on a novel, and I was also busier, more distracted in good and bad ways for all kinds of reasons. But maybe because I couldn’t write as much, there has been so much reading. Oh yes, there has been a good deal of reading. Reading for research, reading for pleasure, reading for catch-up, reading heavy stuff and lighter stuff and all the stuff in between. Poetry and prose and prose-poetry and lord-knows-what-this-is-but-I-love it. Devouring ink on a page (and e-ink on a Kindle) with firm and committed abandon.
This is why we all do this, no? Because somewhere along the way we fell deeply in love with other people’s words? So this year has been a return with zeal to the obsessive and greatest pleasure of my life. And it’s been particularly rewarding to focus primarily, though not exclusively of course, on the small press world and the long-anticipated works of many writers I know and respect. And here, then, are the fruits of my very subjective research on the subject of damn good literature.
Best Novels: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt; There is No Year by Blake Butler; How the Days of Love and Diptheria by Robert Kloss; Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell; Freight by Mel Bosworth; The Bee-Loud Glade by Steve Himmer
Best Short Story Collections: The Indefinite State of Imaginary Morals by Rae Bryant; Normally Special by xTx; Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day by Ben Loory; Ayiti by Roxane Gay; Stories V! by Scott McClanahan; Tongue Party by Sarah Rose Etter; The Great Frustration by Seth Fried; We Others: New and Selected Stories by Steven Millhauser; Volt by Alan Heathcock
Best Translation: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, translated by Lydia Davis
Best Writing about Translation: Lydia Davis on translation in The Paris Review
Best Poetry: If I Falter at the Gallows by Edward Mullany; Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith; The Trees the Trees by Heather Christle; Trees of the Twentieth Century by Steven Sturgeon; Negro League Baseball by Harmony Holiday; I Ain’t Asked Any Pardon for Anything I Done by Sasha Fletcher
Best Sad/Beautiful Love Story: Us by Michael Kimball; A Man of Glass & All the Ways We Have Failed by J.A. Tyler
Best Unclassifiable: Grim Tales by Norman Lock; Entrance to a Colonial Pageant in Which we All Begin to Intricate by Johannes Goransson; Fables by Sarah Goldstein
Best New Lit Blog: The Lit Pub
Best Indie Lit Promoters: Christopher Newgent, Molly Gaudry
Best New Readings Series: The Three Tents Series curated by Mark Cugini of Big Lucks, in Washington, D.C.
Chapbook/Novella: The Last Repatriate by Matthew Salesses; The Mimic’s Own Voice by Tom Williams; They Could No Longer Contain Themselves by Elizabeth J. Colen, John Jodzio, Tim Jones-Yelvington, Sean Lovelace, and Mary Miller
Non-fiction: Swerve: How the World Became Modern, by Stephen Greenblatt; A Book of Secrets by Michael Holroyd; China in Ten Words by Yu Hua
Best Non-2011 Books I Read: Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada; Hav by Jan Morris; Stoner by John Williams; The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
Best New-to-Me Author Discovery that Everyone Else in the World Had Already Discovered: John Barth and William Gass
Best New Presses: Solid Objects; Tiny Hardcore Press; Atticus Books
Books I Haven’t Read Yet But I’m Sure Would Have Been on This List Had I Read Them: East of the West by Miroslav Penkov; God Bless America by Steve Almond; Train Dreams by Denis Johnson; There but for the by Ali Smit; Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens
Most Anticipated Books of 2012: Threats by Amelia Gray; Hill William by Scott McClanahan; The Alligators of Abraham by Robert Kloss; The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus; Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon; Cataclysm Baby by Matt Bell; Shut Up/Look Pretty by Lauren Becker, Erin Fitzgerald, Kirsty Logan, Michelle Reale (and me)
Thanks for the shout-outs, Amber! You’re the best. XO
Thank YOU for all your hard work at the Lit Pub this year, Molly! It’s such a great site and resource.
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An honor and a pleasure, Amber, to be included among such talents, listed by a talented writer. Cheers to you.
Thanks, Rae! You deserve it, for a really unique and fantastic debut.
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Thanks, Amber!
Of course! I JUST finished the book yesterday, so perfect timing. It was really, really good. The detail you put into the prison camp–amazing. The whole thing was great.
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thank you amber! did i tell you i finally got those lynd ward books?? haven’t had time to read them yet…
Oh, good! You’re in for a treat. They’re so gorgeous.
Thanks, Amber. I’m honored.
Of course, Steve! You deserve all the kudos.
Thanks so much for recognizing Atticus Books, Amber. It’s a pleasure to get to know you through this small, indie universe – and I look forward to checking out some of your recommendations.
Of course, Dan. And likewise. You guys have been putting out some really stellar stuff–so kudos to you. :)
Great lists, I agree with so many of your picks. I just read Stoner this year too and so glad I did! I need to make a list of all the 2011 books I wanted to read, but just ran out of time. There is no catching up, but that’s a good thing.
Yay! Stoner is the best. It’s life-changing. Well, was for me any way. Funny, too, Kathy–your book is on my list to read.
Many thanks for mentioning Solid Objects! We really appreciate it!
Of course! You guys have been putting out some great, really eclectic and interesting books.
I am really looking forward to the Millhauser collection – I don’t think there’s a short story writer to touch him. And there’s a new Chabon coming? How did I miss this?
Yeah, the Chabon thing I think was JUST announced. Very pumped about that. And I think you’re right about Millhauser–he’s crazy amazing.
Thanks so much for mentioning my own work as well as so much current or forthcoming from Mud Luscious Press and its authors. We love that you loved these words.
Of course! I realized how as I looked at this list that I should really be advocating that everyone in the world get a subscription to Mud Luscious. But I’ll save that for another post. :)
Amber, I just want to state for the record: ruminating with you over THE SOT-WEED FACTOR, here on Big Other, was one of the high-higher-highest points of my year.
Aww. John, that was absolutely one of my highest points, too. As was discovering a terrific new book to begin with!
Why am I just learning about this?
I think I have told you you were swell in the past, Amber, but now I think you have suddenly escalated to “You Rule!” status.
Awww. I hope my review of your book comes out soon in ABR. Because it’s probably a much better articulation of what was so amazing about your book than I could make in this comment reply field. :)
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