The Rumpus discusses New People by Danzy Senna, whose novel was the website’s book club pick in August. Senna sheds light on why writing about race comes naturally to her, and how she inhabits her characters without judging them.

Crase’s collection is a “reminder that the history we are brooks no conclusion,” writes Hyperallergic, and says that his poetry’s “reach is enormous.” 

Victor LaValle talks about taking time to write his new novel, The Changeling, and why he is obsessed with book structure. 

Smith discusses the religious “soul-searching” she engaged in while writing her memoirs, and why she believes “art is trying to do something that’s fundamentally impossible.” 

Guirgis discusses his first return to the stage in thirteen years, the difficult life of a TV writer, and missing his close friend, the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman. 

Slate praises the “hallucinatory” writing in Klam’s novel, writing that Who Is Rich? treads familiar midlife crisis territory yet still manages to feel “vital.”

The Baffler writes that Senna explores race and political consciousness with dark humor, and praises her ability to create a narrator that is unique but also reminds readers she is “just like you or anyone else going through run-of-the-mill trauma.” 

The New York Times explores the city and people who inspired the playwright, whose “poetic form could take over a room.”

For the Los Angeles Times, D.J. Waldie explores the origins of Los Angeles summer: barbecue, “itsy-bitsy” bikinis, and surf boards. 

Blanchfield is a finalist in Creative Nonfiction for his collection Proxies, and Sinclair, for Cannibal, is a finalist in Poetry. The winners will be announced in September.