We disappear into books. What's your superpower?

Author: Bobb Legget

Women in Cars

203 pages

Available: May

Synopsis: When the body of a university administrator is discovered in his office, the Chancellor, fearing scandal, appoints Robert Cory, a wealthy donor, to conduct an internal investigation—with unforeseen results.

Author: Amos Jasper Wright IV

Nobody Knows How It Got This Good

312 pages

Available: July

TARTT FIRST FICTION AWARD!

Synopsis: Through sixteen stories sharing common environments and characters – a used car salesman, a cook on death row, a lynching survivor, a U.S. Census enumerator – Nobody Knows How It Got This Good, the author’s first short story collection, attempts to come to terms with the modern South. Though set in the Deep South, these stories aspire with humor and pathos to address national dilemmas.

Author: William Cobb

Pomp and Circumstance

226 pages

Available: April

Synopsis: Are writers jealous of one another? Is the Pope Catholic? Willow Behn is about to find out that both are equally true at her first job in a Florida panhandle college. The college’s administration has coerced resident novelist Brasfield Finch to use his acquaintance with the renowned author of To Lynch a Wild Duck to lure her to campus as keynote speaker for graduation. Pomp is a college novel that romps with just what you’d expect: drinking, philandering, jealousies—and loads of nude student streakers.

Author: Kat Meads

Miss Jane: The Lost Years

203 pages

Available: May

Synopsis: A spirited dive into power and sexual politics narrated by a fierce (and funny) female chorus, Miss Jane: The Lost Years chronicles farm girl Jane’s entanglement with Prof P, serial bedder of undergrads, and education in all things: books, partners, economics and selfhood. Supporting cast: therapists, stepchildren, rescue dogs, B.F. Skinner, formidable women poets and mad-making Southern heat.

Author: Mike Burrell

The Land of Grace 

256 pages

Available: July

Synopsis: Looking like Elvis and sounding like Elvis are not enough for tribute artist Doyle Brisendine.  Deep in his heart, Doyle wants to be Elvis. After performing in front of a wildly enthusiastic group of seniors, he realizes the absurdity of his fantasy and sees a dead end looming. Then, in the midst of his despondency, his world brightens as a beautiful young woman offers him not only flattery and a dinner invitation, but a pile of cash and a ride in an antique pink Cadillac. He thinks he’s died and gone to Elvis heaven after she takes him to a replica of Elvis’s Graceland. At first he believes the place is an amusement park staffed by actors portraying characters from Presley’s life, including the Memphis Mafia and the man known as the King–an Elvis impersonator who looks like the singer in his final years. The longer he stays, the more he realizes he’s in the company of a zealous cult, ruled by a ruthless matriarch called Mama and founded on worshiping the King. At his first hint of leaving, his status changes from honored guest in the mansion to shackled prisoner in a copy of Elvis’s humble Tupelo birthplace. There he’s fed a daily regimen of Elvis-centric gospel, laced with potent drugs. Escape seems impossible . . .