Louise Erdrich’s newest novel encourages reflection on our complex present
“Books contain everything worth knowing except what ultimately matters,” Louise Erdrich writes in the early pages of “The Sentence,” boldly setting the tone of her new novel Published Nov. 9, 2021, “The Sentence” is packed tightly with the events of one fictional woman’s life between November 2019 and November 2020. Set in Minneapolis, the novel is profoundly current, deeply human and often raw. It follows an Ojibwe woman named Tookie as she lives through the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the death of George Floyd and the following protests — all while working in a haunted bookshop.
In ‘Call Us What We Carry,’ Amanda Gorman connects our past to our present
“Call Us What We Carry” is the debut poetry collection of Amanda Gorman, who, according to NPR, became the youngest ever inaugural poet in 2021 at 22 years old. Her website notes that she graduated from Harvard with a degree in sociology in 2020, a year before she performed at Joe Biden’s inauguration. Gorman was appointed as the first National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017. Now, she is the youngest board member of 826 National, the largest youth writing network in the United States. Her first two books, a children’s book titled “Change Sings” and the published version of her inaugural poem “The Hill We Climb,” were released in September 2021. Readers can dive deeper into her work with “Call Us What We Carry,” originally “The Hill We Climb and Other Poems,” which was published on Dec. 7, 2021.
Book award shortlists released, showcasing this year’s literary highlights
Fall book award season is upon us, highlighting titles from this past year that, according to critics and award panelists, are worthy of praise and recognition. Some notable book awards are the United States specific National Book Award, the Booker Prize for Fiction, the PEN/Faulkner Award and The Women’s Prize for Fiction. Every year, the panelists for each award pick books for a longlist based on nominations from publishers. They then narrow this down to a shortlist, from which they select a winner. Winners for the Women’s Prize for Fiction were announced on Sept. 8, and winners for the National Book Award and the Booker Prize will be announced in the coming weeks.