Catapult Staff Picks

The first scene in an upcoming Soft Skull title we’re publishing, Colin Winnette’s unnerving The Job of the Wasp, reminded me of Jakob von Gunten’s first scene by Robert Walser. So I’m reading Jakob again to steel myself for the wasps.

—Wah-Ming Chang, Managing Editor

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What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons is a debut novel by a bright writer where the story centers on a young woman dealing with her mother’s grief. It is a book that unravels and twists around vices, family history, and distractions, and I recommend it.

—Morgan Jerkins, Contributing Editor, Web

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This week I’m reading Zipper Mouth by Laurie Weeks. This book is a total trip. Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking—think Office Space meets Eileen Myles’s Cool For You—it’s a totally consuming portrait of the narrator’s unrequited love for a straight girl as she navigates the absurdity of getting through the everyday. There’s also loads of drugs and hangovers and some of the most casually hot-wired sentences you’ll ever find like, “I’m sitting here drinking El Pico and staring at the sky which is the color of my LATE CAPITALIST RAGE.”

I also recommend SZA’s debut album, Ctrl. If you can listen to it in a car, do that. But it’s also good music for: subway commutes, showers, cooking, long walks, short walks, petting your cat, hanging out on roofs, brushing your teeth, etc.

—Allie Wuest, Editorial Assistant, Web

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I’m reading Like a Fading Shadow by Antonio Muñoz Molina, translated by Camilo A. Ramirez. It’s oddly propulsive despite nothing ever really happening. Kind of a meditation on the detritus one can use to construct or reconstruct a life, but perhaps never understand it.

—Olenka Burgess, Publishing Coordinator

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I recently read Goodbye, Vitamin, the debut novel by Rachel Khong, and loved it. It’s funny and heartbreaking and pitch-perfect in its portrayal of an adult daughter returning home for a year to take care of her ailing father on the heels of a failed relationship. I found myself wanting to underline sentences and observations throughout, if only I were the kind of person who felt comfortable writing in her books.

I also experienced one of life’s greatest joys: reading one of your favorite books as a child (and as an adult, for that matter) with your child. My nine-year-old son and I read The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin together during a recent camping trip, and it was so much fun to watch him become invested and try to solve the mystery as the book progressed. I don’t read aloud to him nearly as much as I used to, now that he reads books on his own and life somehow continues to get busier and more hectic as time passes. Returning to those uninterrupted stretches of time where it was just the two of us, introducing him to a book that was meaningful and significant to me at his age, was something special.

—Erin Kottke, Director of Publicity

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Sarah Schmidt’s See What I Have Done is such a fun summer read and gave me legit nightmares—but I kept reading!

—Jennifer Abel Kovitz, Associate Publisher

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I just started Hag-Seed—it’s Margaret Atwood and The Tempest, so naturally I’m enjoying it. And I read an advance copy of Amy Tan’s new memoir, Where the Past Begins, and Alissa Nutting’s new novel Made for Love while sitting lakeside last week.

—Nicole Chung, Managing Editor, Web

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I am reading One Piece Vol. 67. This is the epic slapstick pirate manga of my dreams. It’s an ongoing series with over 80 volumes translated into English. Eiichiro Oda crafts the world of One Piece with incredible care and precision—every character, every background scribble, comes back to bear on the story. He attends to his characters with the same level of empathy that the Hernandez Bros brought to Love and Rockets. And in terms of world building, I can only liken Oda’s achievements in One Piece to those of Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha. If I have to choose a hill to die I choose this: Oda’s genius is equal to Faulkner’s. Sue me!

—Casey Gonzalez, Creative Project Manager; Associate Editor, Black Balloon

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I’m reading Dean Young’s new and selected poems, Bender, which came out a couple of years ago. It’s full of energetic, tender, and joyful writing and often has me giggling on the subway. Also Rachel Khong’s brilliant novel Goodbye, Vitamin is out now, and I’m probably going to reread it before buying it for everyone I know.

—Colin Drohan, Writing Programs Coordinator