What’s the scoop on pub­lish­ing? What Jew­ish books are agents, edi­tors, and pub­lish­ers espe­cial­ly excit­ed for us to read? JBC’s series Book­Watch is here to answer these fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions. Each month, a pub­lish­ing insid­er writes an email to intro­duce them­selves, give us a behind-the-scenes look at their work, and tell us about forth­com­ing Jew­ish books they can’t wait to ush­er into the world.

Greet­ings from the Book Depart­ment at William Mor­ris Endeav­or (WME) agency, where I have been a lit­er­ary agent and part­ner for two decades. Found­ed by William Mor­ris (née Zel­man Moses!) in 1898, WME is the world’s old­est tal­ent agency, and our lit­er­ary depart­ment is close behind. 

Like so many oth­ers who find their way to the world of pub­lish­ing, I grew up sur­round­ed by books: the set of yel­low ency­clo­pe­dias that dom­i­nat­ed my bed­room book­case; the vol­umes by Zola, Grass, Less­ing, Balzac, Kosin­s­ki that lined the shelves in our front hall­way along­side dic­tio­nar­ies, gram­mar guides, and art mono­graphs. The mes­sage was unspo­ken and clear: books mat­ter. Sto­ries and ideas and lan­guage itself are essen­tial top­ics deserv­ing of our atten­tion. We were a sec­u­lar fam­i­ly. I wor­shipped Steig, Blume, Fitzger­ald, Austen, Dos­toyevsky, Morrison. 

After col­lege I pur­sued an MFA in cre­ative non­fic­tion writ­ing and dis­cov­ered the exis­tence of lit­er­ary agents — jack-of-all-trade book lovers who bridge the worlds of art and com­merce. Lit­er­ary agents, I came to under­stand, don’t sit around wait­ing for things to hap­pen; they make things hap­pen. They dis­cov­er and nur­ture tal­ent — fight on behalf of it, if nec­es­sary. They devel­op ideas and edit mate­r­i­al; they match authors with edi­tors and pub­lish­ers, cre­ate com­pe­ti­tion, nego­ti­ate deals that some­times change an author’s life, and then strate­gize goals of a writer’s career.

There are as many dif­fer­ent ways of being a lit­er­ary agent as there are ways of writ­ing a book (there’s no such thing as Lit­er­ary Agent School — we fig­ure it out through a com­bi­na­tion of appren­tice­ship and exper­i­men­ta­tion). That said, the guid­ing prin­ci­ple of my career is sim­ply a con­tin­u­a­tion of the belief that books mat­ter. I work with both nov­el­ists and non­fic­tion writ­ers (pri­mar­i­ly writ­ers of lit­er­ary fic­tion and nar­ra­tive non­fic­tion). As var­ied as their work is, they share a relent­less com­mit­ment to the craft of writ­ing; an abid­ing, even obses­sive, curios­i­ty about their sub­ject or sto­ries; and an active desire to con­nect with read­ers. I’ve found that these qual­i­ties lead to books that car­ry them­selves with con­fi­dence, momen­tum, gen­eros­i­ty, and back­bone. And these are books that can tru­ly grip readers. 

Since I’m writ­ing to you as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of WME’s Book Depart­ment, which is broad and cross­es many dif­fer­ent gen­res, I am excit­ed to share just a taste of our upcom­ing titles:

Tahi­ni Baby: Bright, Every­day Recipes That Hap­pen to Be Veg­e­tar­i­an by Eden Grin­sh­pan (Avery; 5/25)

I can­not wait to get my hands on this cook­book from one of my favorite food per­son­al­i­ties, Eden Grin­sh­pan, the cre­ator of Eden Eats. This is an irre­sistible cel­e­bra­tion of veg­gie-cen­tered Mid­dle East­ern recipes, guar­an­teed to lift spir­its and liv­en tables with total deli­cious­ness. Plus, I’ve been assured that these recipes are flex­i­ble, mix-and-match­able, and for­giv­ing. What’s not to love? 

33 Place Brug­mann: A Nov­el by Alice Austen (Grove; 3/25)

I just adore this ele­gant and accom­plished debut nov­el, which is part mys­tery, part philo­soph­i­cal puz­zle, and has won raves from Ann Patch­ett and Abra­ham Vergh­ese. It’s set in a small Beaux Arts apart­ment house in Brus­sels dur­ing the Nazi occu­pa­tion of Bel­gium, and revolves around two fam­i­lies — the Raphaels, Jew­ish art col­lec­tors, and their dear­est friends the Sauvins, a wid­ow­er and his daugh­ter, a gift­ed artist — whose fates grow increas­ing­ly entwined after the Raphaels dis­ap­pear one night, leav­ing behind every­thing except their price­less art col­lec­tion, which sim­ply vanishes. 

Nar­rat­ed by the denizens of the build­ing (a real place where the author once lived), what emerges is a high-stakes, kalei­do­scop­ic tale of an acci­den­tal com­mu­ni­ty: a group of deeply flawed humans, forced to grap­ple with who they real­ly are, and what mat­ters to them most, as each nav­i­gate this treach­er­ous landscape.

The Bak­er of Lost Mem­o­ries by Shirley Rus­sak Wach­tel (Lit­tle A; 6/25) 

This is an epic nov­el from the author of A Cas­tle in Brook­lyn. Open­ing in Brook­lyn in the 1960s and span­ning decades, it tells the sto­ry of Lena, who wants to be a bak­er just like her moth­er was back in Poland before World War II. But ques­tions about those days, and about a sis­ter Lena nev­er even knew, are ignored with solemn silence. It’s as if every­thing her par­ents left behind was a sub­ject nev­er to be broached.

The one per­son in whom Lena can con­fide is her best friend, Pearl. After Pearl dis­ap­pears from Lena’s life, Lena forges ahead through col­lege, mar­riage, the dream of own­ing a bak­ery, believ­ing that some­day her best friend will return. But first, Lena needs to dis­cov­er the truth about her par­ents’ past, and her own. 

Buf­fa­lo Fluffa­lo … and Puffa­lo by Bess Kalb (Ran­dom House; 9/25) 

The inim­itable com­e­dy writer, mem­oirist, and social media dar­ling, Bess Kalb, is pub­lish­ing a sequel to her beloved, #1 New York Times best­seller, Buf­fa­lo Fluffa­lo. In the new book, Fulff gets a baby brother!