Ashleigh Young, Can You Tolerate This? (July)

Before she’d even published in the U.S., New Zealand novelist Young had been lauded here—winning the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize for nonfiction in 2017. Like a Lena Dunham from Down Under, Young’s writing explores fragility and resilience with a visceral, bodily focus. Her essays are both grounded in particulars—there are ruminations on Katherine Mansfield, arm hair, and the oppression of attempting to work in the same space as someone else—and universal.

Michael Arcenaux, I Can’t Date Jesus Photo: Courtesy of Atria Books / Simon & Schuster

Michael Arceneaux, I Can’t Date Jesus (July)

Arceneaux is a hysterically funny, vulnerable writer whose memoir is a triumph of self-exploration, tinged with but not overburdened by his reckoning with our current political moment. His story of growing up black and gay in Houston, in his very Catholic family, is more than a little heartbreaking at times, though knowing that Arceneaux has come through the other side as a successful author with such a strong sense of self makes it ultimately uplifting. He navigates with crucial nuance his many worlds as they’ve hemmed him in, made him stronger, and brought him to new places. The result is a piece of personal and cultural storytelling that is as fun as it is illuminating.