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UWEM AKPAN’S New York, My Village follows Nigerian editor Ekong Udousoro as he immigrates to Manhattan for a fellowship granted for his expertise on the Biafran War. Ekong is determined to reveal the beauty in humanity, while navigating the complexities of white-dominant office culture, learning about African American and immigrant experiences, and dealing with a bedbug-infested apartment. Over 5,000 miles from home, patience and hope are all he can cling to. With its delicate observation of the tribalism in both countries, the novel offers readers a glimpse into the clash of ignorance and empathy found throughout the world.

Read a Q&A with the author

For her first novel, The Swimmers, creative writing alumna CHLOE LANE (MFA ’17) captures a fierce and determined mission to take life into one’s own hands. In the book, 26-year-old Erin receives a request she cannot refuse: Her mother, who suffers from a devastating neurological condition, has asked Erin to help her receive a merciful death. Years later, Erin undergoes a thoughtful reflection of their final days together and considers the impression their relationship left on her life thereafter.

Florida’s wildlife is a unique hybrid of chaos and poetic beauty. It has grasped the minds of an influential group of authors, poets and environmentalists. The Wilder Heart of Florida offers 34 pieces that illustrate the wonder
embedded in the state’s biodiversity. This follow-up to 1999’s The Wild Heart of Florida was edited by Pulitzer Prizewinning professor of history and Rothman Family Chair in the Humanities JACK E. DAVIS and alumna LESLIE K. POOLE (PhD History ’12), now an environmental studies professor at Rollins College. Portraying Florida’s many ecosystems — from the swampy everglades tothe crisp white coastline — the collection emphasizes the need to protect these breathtaking lands.

With this examination of America’s medical practices, alumnus and cardiologist MICHAEL OZNER (Chemistry ’69) contends that the way we discuss and treat heart disease is overdue for a paradigm shift. While the country’s top doctors, new technologies and advances in modern medicine have made remarkable progress, more than 800,000 people still die from cardiovascular disease in the United States each year. The solution: Strike before the enemy attacks. The groundbreaking approach that Ozner lays out in Heart Attacks Are Not Worth Dying For provides insightful and achievable methods for a more proactive fight against cardiovascular disease.

Have you ever wondered what gave rise to human consciousness? Alumnus FREDERICK L. COOLIDGE (Psychology ’69, MA ’70, PhD ’74) traces the origins of our thinking from the first life forms to the modern structures and functions of the human brain in An Introduction to the Evolution of the Structures and Functions of the Human Brain. Coolidge introduces a new multidisciplinary science that brings together approaches from the fields of evolution, neuroscience, cognitive sciences, psychology, anthropology and archaeology. The book cohesively binds all these principles to create an explorative view of human thought to engage any curious reader.

In a new memoir, alumnus JUSTIN TAYLOR (English ’04) shares a captivating take on the relationship between a father and son. When Taylor was 30, his father, Larry, drove to the top of the Nashville airport parking garage to take his own life. The attempt, thankfully, was unsuccessful, but in its aftermath, the family must navigate how to move forward, circling through thoughts of life, the past and Taylor’s own mental health. Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies and Florida, praised the book as “gorgeously layered and deeply felt.”

Through a series of poems, UF creative writing alumnus JAMES DAVIS (MFA ’11) has captured the whirlwind of self-discovery in his new book Club Q. The poems express the thoughts of a gay boy growing up in the largely conservative and Christian city of Colorado Springs. As the boy learns he cannot find comfort in his hometown, the realization leads him on a path to defining his community and sense of belonging on his terms. Club Q is Davis’ first book; his poems have previously appeared in two editions of the Best New Poets anthology.

Havoc runs amok in a small town nestled in Wisconsin. A mysterious illness spreads rampantly among residents, while a scandal-plagued health inspector leads the investigation. At the same time, a newspaper editor has unfinished business to take care of, and a hot dog cart is causing tension out on Highway 9. In this antic blame-game, creative writing alumnus ALEX PICKETT (MFA ’16) captures the dangers of small-town gossip, upending the “Midwestern Nice” persona with a portrait of corruption and chaos. Published by the University of Wisconsin Press, The Restaurant Inspector is a dark comedy presenting an ordinary small town spiraling in response to unfamiliar anarchy

A look at a complex relationship between a professor and her student evolves into an examination of grief and denial. Creative writing alumna (MFA ’98) DIANE ZINNA’S debut novel The All-Night Sun focuses on Lauren Cress, a college instructor outside Washington D.C. She is well-respected in her professional life but secretly copes with a painful past that has isolated her. After a new student named Siri enrolls in her class, Lauren becomes transfixed with her confidence, and their relationship grows into a close friendship. But during a trip to Sweden, Cress is soon hit by reality after seeing a new side of Siri.

Frank Porter Graham, history professor WILLIAM A. LINK’S newest biography, tracks the prominent southern liberal’s career from local to national and world politics. Hailing from North Carolina, Graham was a born leader, outspoken as a student at the University of North Carolina and later Columbia University. He served as a Marine during World War I and taught at UNC, where he was known as “Dr. Frank” — even after he became the university’s president. With his outspoken views and leadership, he became a New Dealer, a negotiator, a U.N. mediator and briefly a U.S. senator, and he helped remold North Carolina along the way.

Women in law face disproportionate challenges navigating a male-dominant profession. In Women in the Law Courts of Classical Athens, classics professor KONSTANTINOS KAPPARIS challenges the perception that women have always been shut out of the field of law. Through a series of cases, speeches and other key evidence, Kapparis reveals the legal system in classical Athens left a space to speak for free women, citizens and foreigners residing in ancient Greece. The intersection between gender, law and Athenian society provides a compelling new outlook on women’s history and role in the legal system.

ADRIENNE E. STRONG, an assistant professor of anthropology, unravels the everyday ethics and care practices of a low-resource maternity ward in Tanzania for her new book Documenting Death. Strong explores the function and dysfunction that public health care faces and the ethical perils families and medical staff endure despite global development support. The work examines how hospital social relations and accountability systems play a significant role in the ongoing death toll of pregnant women who are given few options but to enter this broken system.

Professor of Italian Studies and Associate Dean MARY ALEXANDRA WATT explores how Dante built on his early attempts at life-writing through his landmark narrative poem, Divine Comedy, written between 1308 and 1320. With Dante’s Golden Legend: Autohagiography in the Divine Comedy, Watt provides a wide-ranging examination of Dante’s perceptions of his own purpose in history through his writing. The book is a crucial new resource for scholars of Dante, as well as the Medieval and Early Modern eras. Watt’s previous works include Dante, Columbus and the Prophetic Tradition and The Cross that Dante Bears.

With a deep gaze into the complex criminal justice system in the era of the Jim Crow South, history professor BRANDON T. JETT considers the multifaceted relationship between the police and African American communities. Race, Crime and Policing in the Jim Crow South provides a historical examination of the institutional, legal and social practices that work together to create an intricate problem in America — one that has moved slowly toward progress. Author and historian Anders Walker said the book “should be a required reading for anyone interested in the complex story of race and policing in the United States.”

In the latest novel from creative writing alumnus JEFF TRIPPE (MA ’84), Frank Treadwell believes he was born to play America’s pastime: baseball. With his future and health on the brink of collapse, Treadwell must tackle the obstacles that lay ahead of him, from experiencing his first love, his mother’s illness, to his subsequent mental health. Treadwell’s dream lay at the very end of his fingertips — can he grasp it? Trippe’s Dream offers a gripping account of a man with the passion and resilience to dodge the most unexpected curveballs in life.

Writer and professor Miguel de Unamuno was an early existentialist and great thinker (1864-1936). In the two-volume Approaches to Teaching the Works of Miguel de Unamuno, UF Spanish professor LUIS ÁLVAREZ-CASTRO captures the work of Unamuno and his defiance against the Spanish King Alfonso XIII and the military dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera that led to the Spanish Civil War. The first volume provides information on scholarly and critical secondary sources about Unamuno, while the second volume covers the comparative literature, philosophy and religion components of Unamuno’s works.

Writer Lawrence “Larry” Goodwyn started his career as a radical Texas journalist. By the 1950s, he became a tremendous force in the world of grassroots activism. In People Power, professor Wesley C. Hogan of Duke University and UF history professor and director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program PAUL ORTIZ capture the life, legacy and writings of Goodwyn. Years after his death in 2013, his impact continues to shape social justice activism and push the next generation of leaders forward.

In her new book, UF religion professor ANNA PETERSON promotes a practice-based approach to ethics. Works Righteousness rethinks the relationship of actions, ideas and results, demonstrating how our actions often shape our values — just as much as we act according to our stated moral ideas. Peterson shows how her insights are relevant to pressing, real-world issues like climate change, euthanasia and hate speech. The author of six books, Peterson has researched and written about social ethics, environmental ethics, religion and social change, animal studies, and religion and politics in Latin America.