Lydia Millet, Matthew Salesses, Jennifer Maritza McCauley coming … – Columbia Daily Tribune
An abiding, annual joy for Columbia book lovers is watching the Unbound Book Festival lineup progressively expand an author at a time. The festival, which returns to downtown Columbia April 20-23, has begun its literary buildout, adding three names to its previous keynote announcement.
Novelist Lydia Millet and multi-genre authors Matthew Salesses and Jennifer Maritza McCauley have joined keynote poets Ross Gay and Patrick Rosal on the 2023 roster in recent weeks.
Millet’s latest, “Dinosaurs,” hit shelves this year and is a work of uncommon spirit. The book begins as a travelogue, following its heartbroken protagonist, Gil, as he leaves his life in New York and walks all the way to his new home in Arizona.
Proving, however, that the destination can itself be a surprising journey, “Dinosaurs” focuses on the community Gil embeds himself within upon arrival; the book examines how and why we make connections, and the beautiful, subtle impressions our lives can leave.
Millet is a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist whose other titles include “A Children’s Bible,” “Magnificence” and “Ghost Lights.”
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Salesses’ forthcoming work, “The Sense of Wonder,” will precede his trip to Columbia. The novel, out in January, revolves around how “Asian Americans navigate the thorny worlds of sports and entertainment when everything is stacked against them,” according to its publisher.
Previous books include “Craft in the Real World,” which seeks to apply fresh imagination to workshops and other literary conventions; the novel “The Hundred-Year Flood”; and “Different Racisms: On Stereotypes, the Individual, and Asian American Masculinity.”
McCauley will be a familiar face and voice to many Columbia readers, having earned her Ph.D. at the University of Missouri. “When Trying to Return Home,” her new story collection, will hit the atmosphere in February. In 2017, McCauley’s remarkable poetry found readers in “Scar On/Scar Off,” a book the Tribune praised for its “uncommon mixture of vulnerability and self-assurance.”
“What can’t McCauley do? A writer to watch,” Kirkus Reviews noted in its look at “When Trying to Return Home.”
The Unbound lineup will continue to expand in the coming weeks. All Unbound events, including Gay and Rosal’s keynote appearance April 21, are free. Visit https://www.unboundbookfestival.com/ for more details.