Catapult publishes books, produces a daily web magazine, offers writing classes, and hosts an open online writing platform. Catapult publishes books, produces a daily web magazine, offers writing classes, and hosts an open online writing community.
From the founders of Electric Literature and Black Balloon Publishing. Catapult is headquartered in New York, NY, with a second office in Portland, OR. Have a question? Shoot us an email at [email protected]
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Operating as usual
"Gorgeously rendered . . . this study of memory and grief features a young woman trying to pull her brother back from the edge after their mother’s death."
Library Journal picks BROTHER, SISTER, MOTHER, EXPLORER as a Best Debut Novel of Spring & Summer!
LJ’s thrice-yearly list of debut novels showcases premise and promise. Herewith 50 titles to watch for and savor.
![“FAKE ACCOUNTS [is] a story that is mostly about the effects of exposure to the Internet on the self. . . . This is a po...](https://external.fymy1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=AQFG-kaJ-o9vkrON&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.nybooks.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F03%2Foyler_lauren-040821crop.jpg&_nc_eui2=AeHgTRgj62V6O45CD7tMEt1cbP_IAbarQBxs_8gBtqtAHJWTrBFaTp5gSRq9oIFLVR4&_nc_cb=1&ccb=3-4&_nc_hash=AQFnozijrB2CD9S-)
“FAKE ACCOUNTS [is] a story that is mostly about the effects of exposure to the Internet on the self. . . . This is a portrait of a person made incredibly ill by the Internet. She may be going mad and trying to take us down with her.” —Choire Sicha on Lauren Oyler’s debut novel for the New York Review of Books
Why do I feel so bad all the time is the question asked by so many young people today. In order to sneak a bite-size amount of control and warm feeling
The AU Review calls Jamie Figueroa‘s BROTHER, SISTER, MOTHER, EXPLORER “a truly original debut” and “an absolute must read” — we couldn’t agree more!
https://buff.ly/3vLayau
"A body for a body is a kind of justice, right?" In this short story by Alysandra Dutton, there are werewolves among the villagers—the campers—in this game of power, trust, mob mentality:
Werewolves, you unscathed bastards, open your eyes and decide who to kill.
"Isn’t it funny, how they revel? Are there souls hovering over our shoulders while we drink and kiss?" In this short story by Alysandra Dutton, there are werewolves among the villagers—the campers—in this game of power, trust, mob mentality:
Werewolves, you unscathed bastards, open your eyes and decide who to kill.
"Most go first to the Family’s cosmetics launch for the new fall collection, featuring the limited-edition Grief palette." A new short story by Tom Garback:
An old man walking by says, “When you laugh at someone’s pain, you’re dying inside,” and the model calls back, “No one’s in pain here, grandpa.”
"A noble and large-souled work of literature."
It's excellent to see Sam Sacks celebrate Semezdin Mehmedinović's new MY HEART alongside other new books by authors from the former Yugoslavia for The Wall Street Journal!
Plus ‘Speak, Silence,’ ‘The President Shop’ and ‘From Nowhere to Nowhere.’
From the poem "Time Lapse" by Gabrielle Bates: "A hummingbird is pulled like a bull / toward the loudest reds, / lands on the inmost branch to preen // where only I with window view can see / the arching back of her green torso."
In a time lapse, nothing happens smoothly. / Red horns quake as they splinter / from limbs on the bottlebrush.
"A body for a body is a kind of justice, right?" In this short story by Alysandra Dutton, there are werewolves among the villagers—the campers—in this game of power, trust, mob mentality:
Werewolves, you unscathed bastards, open your eyes and decide who to kill.
"I wanted to be asked why. I wanted to be asked what’s wrong. I wanted to yell and be yelled at, for the silence to snap in two." An essay by Laura Jensen on adopting a puppy and grappling with an eating disorder during the pandemic:
During those first weeks, I was in a never-ending, often failing battle with Penny, then an eight-pound roly-poly of a beagle
"Maybe dark-skinned girls with brown eyes and plump bodies were not beautiful," Renée Watson writes. "This is when I learned that what was true at home was not true everywhere."
Nothing has gotten better—not the pandemic, not racism—but I know, and the Black women in my life tell me so, that everything will be alright.
"Gorgeously rendered . . . this study of memory and grief features a young woman trying to pull her brother back from the edge after their mother’s death."
Library Journal picks BROTHER, SISTER, MOTHER, EXPLORER as a Best Debut Novel of Spring & Summer!
https://buff.ly/3s35pIp
"At my mouth, closed and wanting: how dare you? It was a question I feared and craved: direct, urgent, maybe even loving if held up in the right light." An essay by Laura Jensen on adopting a puppy and grappling with an eating disorder during the pandemic:
During those first weeks, I was in a never-ending, often failing battle with Penny, then an eight-pound roly-poly of a beagle
"I grew up feeling like I was too much, too big. That I took up too much space. But I grew up knowing I had a momma who loved me so much, she would die for me." Renée Watson writes.
Nothing has gotten better—not the pandemic, not racism—but I know, and the Black women in my life tell me so, that everything will be alright.
"Before then, I’m not sure that I knew that girls really sang rock music. But then there was Paramore, their music and their front woman expressing a wild and colorful rage." Olivia Pace on what Hayley Williams taught her about vulnerability:
Hayley’s rage-filled vocals provided an emotional outlet that gave voice to loss, anger, and confusion I couldn’t put words to yet.
![“FAKE ACCOUNTS [is] a story that is mostly about the effects of exposure to the Internet on the self. . . . This is a po...](https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-0/p480x480/160494958_2034313146710127_7245433641792075767_o.jpg?_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=da1649&_nc_eui2=AeGykogYthER3bGHoFZ-Ymq8y1iA3SN-IQXLWIDdI34hBbkqtNAVexqeTqQfC9NkUTM&_nc_ohc=kY39O0rrf2oAX_SXqRs&_nc_ht=scontent-yyz1-1.xx&tp=6&oh=60478fdbd46a74457eb6e3c2e3d67dd6&oe=607BB160)
“FAKE ACCOUNTS [is] a story that is mostly about the effects of exposure to the Internet on the self. . . . This is a portrait of a person made incredibly ill by the Internet. She may be going mad and trying to take us down with her.” —Choire Sicha on Lauren Oyler’s debut novel for the New York Review of Books
https://buff.ly/3bYCYpu
🏠 Cover reveal! 🏠
Today we're showing off GENTRIFIER, a new memoir from Ann Elizabeth Moore.
Our cover was designed by Dana LI, with Nicole Caputo Design as Art Director.
Gentrifier is on shelves October 19th, and you can get those preorders in now!
http://bit.ly/GentrifierBook
Taking on the thorny ethics of owning and selling property as a white woman in a majority Black city and a majority Bangladeshi neighborhood with both intelligence and humor, this memoir brings a new perspective to a Detroit that finds itself perpetually on the brink of revitalization.
🏠 "The best book I’ve read on this freighted subject ... A tour de force by a writer who is smart enough to let activism and absurdity sit side by side, and let them go. I’m in awe.” —Paul Lisicky
Accompanied by her cats, Moore moves to a bungalow in a new city where she gardens, befriends the neighborhood youth, and grows to intimately understand civic collapse and community solidarity. When the troubled history of her prize house comes to light, Moore finds her life destabilized by the aftershocks of the housing crisis and governmental corruption.
This is also a memoir of art, gender, work, and survival. Moore writes into the gaps of Woolf’s declaration that “a woman must have money and a room of one’s own if she is to write”; what if this woman were q***r and living with chronic illness, as Moore is, or a South Asian immigrant, like Moore’s neighbors? And what if her primary coping mechanism was jokes?
Part investigation, part comedy of a vexing city, and part love letter to girlhood, Gentrifier examines capitalism, property ownership, and whiteness, asking if we can ever really win when violence and profit are inextricably linked with victory.
This is a book I hope we'll ALL be discussing this fall!
"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a crazy person in possession of an episode must be in want of a bed." A new installment of s.e. smith's An Unquiet Mind, on the problems of institutionalization and what disability justice should look like:
Beds transmute into a form of policing while simultaneously being promoted as an alternative to policing.
"Maybe dark-skinned girls with brown eyes and plump bodies were not beautiful," Renée Watson writes. "This is when I learned that what was true at home was not true everywhere."
Nothing has gotten better—not the pandemic, not racism—but I know, and the Black women in my life tell me so, that everything will be alright.
"Maybe it’s a cruel irony that loving food is what has made my body unacceptable to so many, yet loving food is also the thing that has kept me alive." In her From a K-pop Fan, With Love column, Giaae Kwon writes about IU, impossible beauty standards, and healing from disordered eating:
I know that IU, too, understands what it’s like to tie her self-worth to her body; to be judged for how she looks.
"Bodies do not speak for us, and if mine did, it was not saying what any of us needed to hear." An essay by Laura Jensen on adopting a puppy and grappling with an eating disorder during the pandemic:
During those first weeks, I was in a never-ending, often failing battle with Penny, then an eight-pound roly-poly of a beagle
"This rage is not just because of what happened to me and now is happening to another generation, but also because I know what it is like to live in the wake." A new essay by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein:
I became a physicist to share stories of the cosmos I love, not constantly speak on how we are cut off from them by white supremacy.
"My friends and study partners refused to acknowledge the obvious: a Black woman—even a light-skinned one—violated everything we had been taught about who belonged in physics." A new essay by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein:
I became a physicist to share stories of the cosmos I love, not constantly speak on how we are cut off from them by white supremacy.
!["Today, it seems, was the day I was meant to die.""[A] powerful, at once profound and charming book.” —Francine Prose, T...](https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/s720x720/161743309_2033375536803888_2156028164310932256_o.jpg?_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=da1649&_nc_eui2=AeH8mpcrId2PtlEuCqArTAAse7qyLY0FVaF7urItjQVVoXw_7BwU-83P8OP54LZrHnc&_nc_ohc=Tb5uF6OY9aMAX_ikKg5&_nc_ht=scontent-yyz1-1.xx&tp=7&oh=6557813625d35b5982958cf83ca16eb8&oe=607CBAC2)
"Today, it seems, was the day I was meant to die."
"[A] powerful, at once profound and charming book.” —Francine Prose, The New York Times Book Review
My Heart by Semezdin Mehmedinović is available now!
https://buff.ly/2O3c3j9
"What if I said yes, chop suey is authentic? The authenticity of chop suey was the authenticity of survival, of alienation, of adaptation." Shing Yin Khor on the origins of chop suey:
by shing. How Did Chop Suey Become a Staple of Chinese American Cuisine? The...
"For all her various contrived public personas and her possibly manufactured cult following, Swift can write." Anne Putnam on what Taylor Swift's masterful songwriting can teach us about brevity:
Only 3 spots left in our upcoming online poetry workshop. Register today!
Sign up now for our partner Catapult’s online poetry workshop with Natasha Oladokun! Class starts soon—grab your spot today.
"I am forced to live in a parallel world to the one I wanted to live in, where I could have been a physicist without also being asked to speak on or compensate for the persistent racism of institutions." An essay by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein:
I became a physicist to share stories of the cosmos I love, not constantly speak on how we are cut off from them by white supremacy.
"The promotion of beds and people to guide crazy people to them then becomes a swapping of authority figures, white coats for blue uniforms." A new installment of s.e. smith An Unquiet Mind, on the problems of institutionalization and what disability justice should look like:
Beds transmute into a form of policing while simultaneously being promoted as an alternative to policing.
"I first regretted / I’d ever been born when I felt / uncommonly // bad. You are bad. But badness is as common / as quartz, & seldom found / on its own, // in a pure state." Read and listen to this poem by Cate Lycurgus:
Some days come too soon.
The Rumpus features Jamie Figueroa’s 3/17 Loyalty Bookstore event where she’ll be in conversation with Carla Bruce-Eddings to talk her debut novel BROTHER, SISTER, MOTHER, EXPLORER!
https://buff.ly/3vvyHBv
"My maps dot is moving freely through a German city." In the final installment of their column "Binding in Berlin," Jenna Zucker finds a drag show that celebrates every part of themselves: Jewish, q***r, and a descendent of Holocaust survivors. Read it now:
Months later, when people ask me to briefly describe my experiences in Berlin, I tell them I felt Jewish during the day and q***r at night.
"Across this great nation of ours, crazy people can be forced to take medication or institutionalized against their will and amazingly, sane people congratulate themselves for this." A new installment of s.e. smith's An Unquiet Mind, on the problems of institutionalization and what disability justice should look like:
Beds transmute into a form of policing while simultaneously being promoted as an alternative to policing.
"It is the fate of ghosts to rely on affirmations—ghosts depend on the recognition of an outsider to exist. And so, it is the fate of ghosts to be themselves haunted by their own deniability." @itwastrash on recognizing and being recognized in media and life
Michael Elias on recognizing, being recognized, and the haunted feeling of seeing what others cannot.
From the poem "A Letter to My Mother, or Ode to Invisible Things" by Ryan Dzelzkalns: "Dear unstoppable face of the moon, you are the charm of the well-placed tchotchke, the house that feels empty without you."
Dear sudden inspiration, creeping uncertainty, tiny splinter of glass, / sometimes you cannot be enough.
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María Gainza'a singular OPTIC NERVE has made its way to the finals in the The Morning News Tournament of Books, where it squares off against a heavyweight: Sally Rooney's NORMAL PEOPLE! What an incredible underdog story this year! https://themorningnews.org/tob/
"The Crying Book seems determined to . . . press up against the edge of language, to push beyond representation into the real.” —Katy Waldman, The New Yorker https://books.catapult.co/products/the-crying-book-by-heather-christle
Columbus! This Thursday 12/5 at 8:00pm: Heather Christle will discuss her newest, THE CRYING BOOK 💦, with Madeline Ffitch and Elissa Washuta at Two Dollar Radio Headquarters
In case you missed the news, OPTIC NERVE by María Gainza and translator Thomas Bunstead is one of the notable books of the year as chosen by The New York Times Books! See the full list here: https://nyti.ms/2shwRbw And don't miss the gorgeous full review of the book by John Williams here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/18/books/review/maria-gainza-optic-nerve.html
✨Congratulations to María Gainza and translator Thomas Bunstead! ✨ OPTIC NERVE is one of the notable books of the year as chosen by The New York Times Books! See the full list here: https://nyti.ms/2shwRbw And don't miss the gorgeous full review of the book by John Williams here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/18/books/review/maria-gainza-optic-nerve.html
OHIO! In a couple of weeks, Thursday 12/5 at 8:00pm: Don't miss Heather Christle discuss her newest, THE CRYING BOOK 💦, with Madeline Ffitch and Elissa Washuta at Two Dollar Radio Headquarters!
OHIO! Next month, Thursday 12/5 at 8:00pm: Don't miss Heather Christle discuss her newest, THE CRYING BOOK 💦, with Madeline Ffitch and Elissa Washuta at Two Dollar Radio Headquarters.
“Antonio is a young man who does not know how to elicit desire, only demand it. He’s a poster boy for toxic masculinity as well as its greatest victim.” An all-new installment of Movie Made Gay from @bmanuel on Antonio Banderas, briefs, and sexual awakening in the Hanes aisle, featuring an illustration from @levihastingsart! Follow the link in our bio or Stories for more!
"[Lara] Prior-Palmer already shares many qualities with classic English travel writers such as Rebecca West and Gertrude Bell, but she is also refreshingly self-aware. . . . [ROUGH MAGIC is] a heroic tale beautifully told."—Caroline Eden, Times Literary Supplement.
Look what landed in our office just now! Finished copies of the THE UNGRATEFUL REFUGEE by Dina Nayeri! I'm so excited to get this into your hands!
Heather Hansman of Outside Magazine says, "ROUGH MAGIC succeeds on its realness and Lara Prior-Palmer’s unsparing analysis of herself and the scene. . . . Even in the down moments, when one of her ponies is temporarily injured and she’s struggling, the fast-paced book is lyrical and full of tight, action-packed sentences. It reads like it came bursting out of her." http://bit.ly/2Z9ZNNS
This splendid review of ROUGH MAGIC in the May 1st issue of the Library Journal is truly the bees knees! "A fresh, irreverent voice and a quick wit. . . . It's a story worthy of the best adventure writers, and Lara Prior-Palmer does not disappoint. An appealing account that will capture the imagination of a wide audience, including young adults. Readers who enjoyed Cheryl Strayed's Wild and James Campbell's Braving It will want to join Prior-Palmer on her once-in-a-lifetime trek."
Happy pub day to María Gainza and translator Thomas Bunstead. OPTIC NERVE is in stores in the U.S. today! "A highly original, piercingly beautiful work, a book you’ll want to savor." —Johanna Thomas-Corr, The Guardian “Here, art is a trellis around which life knots and overlaps, severs, climbs upward . . . Optic Nerve’s episodic iridescence—the way each chapter shimmers with the delicacy of a soap bubble—belies its gravity. Gainza has written an intricate, obsessive, recherché novel about the chasm that opens up between what we see and what we understand" —Dustin Illingworth, The Nation Order yours here! http://bit.ly/MGOpticNerve
The American Booksellers Association’s May Indie Next list is here, and guess which author and which 25 Mongolian ponies made the list? 🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇🏇 See the full list here! https://www.bookweb.org/news/may-2019-indie-next-list-preview-571873
Thomas Gebremedhin of WSJ Magazine names Lara Prior-Palmer's ROUGH MAGIC as one of the 12 best books of the spring! "An inspirational tale of struggle—dehydration, injury and isolation—ultimately overcome through grit and sheer willpower." https://on.wsj.com/2U9kdYv
Remember, you can pre-order signed copies of Jane Alison's forthcoming Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative with our friends at Old Town Books. Reserve yours here: http://bit.ly/meanderpreorder
Same, Celeste Ng, same.
Fantastic to see a Publishers Weekly star for Shelley Jackson's RIDDANCE! "This clever, cacophonous novel of metaphysical gothic from Jackson (Half Life) teems with voices of the living and the dead. . . . Full of Carrollian logic and whimsical grotesquerie, the tale . . . is an illuminating allegory of fiction writing, for “the necrocosmos is made of language; we precipitate a world with every word we speak.” Joines is a remarkable creation in a wonderful book—an imperious, otherworldly, and damaged figure who, haunted by her childhood, devises and devotes her life to a haunted philosophy." bit.ly/RiddancePW
It's our great pleasure to announce that Nicole Chung's forthcoming ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW has been chosen as a Barnes & Noble Fall 2018 Discover Great New Writers selection! Congratulations Nicole! bit.ly/AYCEKBN
Have you seen the stunning cover for Suzanne Matson’s engrossing and intimate new novel? Ultraviolet illuminates the lives of three generations of women, each more independent than the last. Get your preorders in now!
Today, in honor of #WorldSleepDay, we're extremely proud to unveil our cover for the forthcoming INSOMNIA by Marina Benjamin. "An exquisite meditation on time, the dark hours, and the complexities of longtime love, INSOMNIA is a poetic journey into the wide-awake, generous, exciting mind of Marina Benjamin. I couldn't put it down, and my own inner world is richer for it." —Dani Shapiro, author of Hourglass Insomnia is on the rise. More than a third of all adults report experiencing it, with the figure climbing steeply among those over sixty-five. Marina Benjamin takes on her personal experience of the condition—her struggles with it, her insomniac highs, and her dawning awareness that states of sleeplessness grant us valuable insights into the workings of our unconscious minds. Although insomnia is rarely entirely welcome, Benjamin treats it less as an affliction than as an encounter that she engages with and plumbs. She adds new dimensions to both our understanding of sleep (and going without it) and of night, of how we perceive darkness. Along the way, INSOMNIA trips through illuminating material from literature, art, philosophy, psychology, pop culture, and more. Benjamin pays particular attention to the relationship between women and sleep—Penelope up all night, unraveling her day's weaving for Odysseus; the Pre-Raphaelite artists' depictions of deeply sleeping women; and the worries that keep contemporary females awake. INSOMNIA is an intense, lyrical, witty, and humane exploration of a state we too often consider only superficially. "This is the song of insomnia, and I shall sing it," Marina Benjamin declares.
Nicole Chung's forthcoming memoir ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW is so moving. No, really, IT'S MOVING! Preorder your signed copy from Powell's Books, Inc. now! http://bit.ly/NicoleChung
Oh hey, we do hardcovers now.
MEMO:
Happy pub day to Simeon Marsalis! His "visionary" nuanced novel AS LIE IS TO GRIN is in stores everywhere today! Don't miss the novel booksellers across the country are listing as one of the best of the year!
Happy pub day to Anthony Brandt and David Eagleman! Their "essential," "beautifully written" THE RUNAWAY SPECIES is in stores everywhere today! More details here: https://books.catapult.co/products/the-runaway-species-pre-order
Happy pub day to Josephine Rowe, whose brilliant A LOVING, FAITHFUL ANIMAL is in stores everywhere today! "A subtle and haunting meditation on childhood, escape, the bonds and the limits of family, and the long reach of trauma. Rowe is a serious talent, and her debut novel is both gorgeous and stunning." —Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven https://books.catapult.co/products/a-loving-faithful-animal-a-novel
Amazing! RESERVOIR 13 by Jon McGregor, Writer has just been longlisted for the The Man Booker Prize, alongside some incredible company. We're extremely proud to be publishing this deft, beautiful novel in the U.S. this fall, a book that truly deserves this recognition. Congrats Jon!
When you're the last one in the office and the publicists aren't there to guard the galleys.
Desperately Seeking - Mymensingh
28th Street