New-Release Roundup

Recent book releases from Sun authors include a collection of dark tales set in small-town Indiana, poetry that wrestles with the sacred, and a memoirist’s reflections on caring for her parents in their final years. Pick one up today and support these wonderful writers.—Ed.

 

How We Do Things Here 

Matt Cashion’s essay “Lost and Found” appeared in our January 2025 issue. How We Do Things Here is his latest collection of short fiction.

From the publisher: “Inside absurd and poignant moments that provoke much laughter and pain, Matt Cashion’s cast of slow-learners reveals how we try (and fail) and retry to forge meaningful connections in the troubled spaces we’re so desperate to share.”

More from Matt Cashion

The Future of Love: Poems

John Poch’s poem “In Texas, Thinking Of Georgia” appeared in our July 2022 issue. In his eighth collection of poetry, Poch travels to the evocative cities of Federic García Lorca’s Spain.

From the publisher: “The third-largest cathedral in the world and the bullfight arena loom large in these pages, both strange architectures where beauty can only be achieved through suffering and blood sacrifice. The beloved here is a complicated figure: she is muse, lover, mother, housewife, model, queen, dancer, baker, sculptural object, goddess, landscape, and sea. She requires our full attention.”

More from John Poch

Holy the Body: Poems

The title poem of Donovan McAbee’s debut collection, which first appeared in The Sun in July 2019, offers an unexpected benediction for the aging body.

From the publisher: “Holy the Body wrestles with ghosts and shadows, discovers Mother Teresa in a cinnamon bun in Nashville, Tennessee, and Jesus's tears in a trick of light. . . . The collection chisels out a hard-earned language for the sacred, one which proclaims that the beauty we find in the midst of uncertainties is itself a solace that, as one of the final poems in the manuscript affirms, ‘is more than enough.’”

More by Donovan McAbee

Breathing Room: Poems of Rest and Retreat

James Crews’s poem “World Prayer Day” appeared in our January 2021 issue. His latest book of poetry, Breathing Room, offers many more prayerful moments grounded in everyday life.

From the publisher: “In this inspiring collection of poems, award-winning poet and mindfulness educator James Crews models how the smallest moments of deep attention can also be the most joyful and healing. Each poem offers gentle wisdom and comfort, providing life-changing insights that will resonate long after the last page.”

More by James Crews

Equipment for the Darkness

Over the years, dozens of Doug Crandell’s personal essays, and one piece of fiction, have appeared in the pages of The Sun. His new prizewinning collection of short shorties plumbs the landscape of rural Indiana.

“In these tales,” the publisher writes, “a young man braves a blizzard to save his sister, while a small-town sheriff is haunted by the father of his childhood friend. Two brothers confront the harsh realities of manhood and loss. Across eleven piercing narratives, Crandell masterfully weaves together themes of isolation and connection, serenity and disruption, unflinchingly providing us with the tools we need to endure the long, cold darkness.”

More by Doug Crandell

Light Falls on Everything

Rebecca McClanahan’s February 2017 essay “What Love Looks Like from Here” is the starting point for her new memoir Light Falls on Everything: A Daughter’s Memoir of Caregiving, Grief, and Possibility.

From the publisher: “Emotionally gripping and unstintingly honest, this memoir invites us to reflect on the timeless nature of love and loss and, with it, the unexpected lessons of caregiving: how to move forward into our own uncertain futures, accept grief as a longtime companion, and approach death with some measure of grace.”

More by Rebecca McClanahan