Nonfiction

With a mix of wry humor and raw emotion, Sarah Kasbeer re-examines the most painful experiences of her youth, including an abusive boyfriend and a sexual assault. Her vivid descriptions of growing up in Central Illinois recall the coming-of-age memoirs of Mary Karr, but written for the #MeToo era. As an adult living in New York during this clarifying cultural moment, Kasbeer has no choice but to fully reckon with the aftermath of her own trauma. Artful and entertaining, this debut collection exp

Nonfiction-Memoir

Essay collection by Erik Anderson

Nicole Walker

KATE SCHMITT

As an art critic and museum staffer, Erin Langner was skeptical of what she would find when she visited the Las Vegas Strip for the first time in the mid-2000s. To her surprise, she returned whenever the opportunity arose, seeking to understand her attraction to this "escape" destination—and the personal histories it conjured. Read together, the essays become a guide to holding fantasy and reality together in one glimpse, to better understand our impulses and ourselves.