Amy Bloom

August release, "AWAY". Reviews: "The journey—through Chicago by train, into Seattle’s African-American underworld and across the Alaskan wilderness—elevates Bloom’s novel from familiar immigrant chronicle to sweeping saga of endurance and rebirth. Encompassing prison, prostitution and poetry, Yiddish humor and Yukon settings, Bloom’s tale offers linguistic twists, startling imagery, sharp wit and a compelling vision of the past. Bloom has created an extraordinary range of characters, settings and emotions." - Publisher’s Weekly "Summary doesn’t do justice to this compact epic’s richness of episode and characterization, nor to the exemplary skill with which Bloom increases her story’s resonance through dramatic foreshadowing of what lies ahead . . . .Echoes of Ragtime, Cold Mountain and Irving Howe’s World of Our Fathers, in an amazingly dense, impressively original novel." - Kirkus Reviews "An urgent, riveting, fabulously entertaining road trip of a novel, Away grabs you by the throat from the first page to the last, breaks your heart and shakes all your senses awake." —Emma Donoghue, author of Touchy Subjects "Amy Bloom’s work has always revolved around what love and desire can make us do. In Away, she paints filial love on an immense geographic and historical canvas. The result, a story of loss and survival, is gripping." - —Christopher Tilghman, author of Roads of the Heart "This beautiful, effulgent book sped me forward word by word, out of the room I was in and into Amy Bloom’s world. This is a wonderful novel, a cosmos which transcends its time period and grabs us without compromise. Lillian’s astonishing journey, driven by a mother’s love, will be with me for a long, long time."—Ron Carlson, author of The Speed of Light "I haven’t read a novel in a long time where I genuinely wanted to get back to it, just to sit down and read for the pure joy of it. It is a book full of tender wisdom, brawling insight, sharp-edged humor and—if it’s possible—a lovely, wayward precision. Amy Bloom has created an unforgettable cast of characters. Lillian, the heroine, or anti-heroine, somehow always manages what great journeys always do – she continues. A marvelous book." - Colum McCann, author of Zoli "Raunchy, funny, and touching. Away is an elegant window into the perils of invention and reinvention in New York in the twenties. Amy Bloom’s heroine, Lillian, is an unforgettable young woman on a quest to make her life whole and to belong in an unstable, yet fascinating, new American world." - Caryl Phillips, author of A Distant Shore

GAIL WALDSTEIN
	The MacGuffin staff is nominating "Faith Forces" for Pushcart Prize 2006. The MacGuffin Fall 2005 Issue with your story "Faith Forces" is scheduled to come out next week.

Gail was one of our third place winners last year. I'm so proud of Gail and I'm also happy to annouce that Gail will be releasing her new book in December.

MARY BROWNELL
	Mary won first place in a poetry competition in Chicago.