Chenoweth, Avery:Wingtips (John Hopkins Press). A lyric and incisive first collection of stories.

Doenges, Judy: What She Left Me: Stories and a Novella (University Press of New England) A female Denis Johnson? High-strung sentences kept taut by strange, mercurial stories. Read the title story on the NYT’s site.

Ellis, Helen: Eating the Cheshire Cat (Scribner). This Southerner’s debut novel is both grotesque and hilarious.

Lee, Chang-rae: Recovered Memories (Riverhead Books). "…[a] solitary, remarkably tender book that reveals the shadows that fall constantly from the past" – Andrew O’Hagan. Read Chapter One on the NYT’s site.

Michaels, Anne: Poems (Knopf). Her first collection of poetry to be published in the States. Michael Ondaatje has commented about her poetry: "These are poems that go way beyond games or fashion or politics… they represent the human being entire."

olds, Sharon: Blood, Tin, Straw (Knopf). Her latest collection of poems.

Phillips, Dale Ray: My People’s Waltz (WW Norton). Debut collection. My favorite of the year so far. "Intense, fresh, ragged life." – Barry Hannah Read the first story in the NYT.

Sherman, Susan: Dear Juliette: Letters of May Sarton to Juliette Huxley(Norton). An emotionally tumultuous, intellectually riveting exchange. "The reader is almost a participant, aware of the changing tones of Sarton’s self-revelations over the years." – Charlotte Mandel. A non-fiction must.

Slavin, Julia: The Woman Who Cut Off Her Leg at the Maidstone Club (Henry Holt & Company, Inc.). Her characters do the unimaginable in an attempt to salvage their realities. Hilarious and inventive.

Warner, Alan: The Sopranos (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux). Possibly this Scottish icon’s best yet. See his interview in the Spring 1999 issue of Bomb Magazine or read the first chapter in April 4th’s NY Times : Books Online.

Wiesel, Elie: And the Sea Is Never Full (Knopf). The concluding volume of the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s "passionate and revealing memoirs."

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Camille Renshaw is the Senior Editor for Pif Magazine. She currently resides in Boston, MA.