The 2022 Proofs I’d Sell a Kidney For
Black Cake - Charmaine Wilkerson
Penguin Michael Joseph - February 2022
What I’ve Heard: A sprawling family saga focused around the family’s matriarch? I’ll have a slice of this cake, please! Considering the fact that this is Wilkerson’s debut novel and it’s generated this much hype (not to mention Oprah has already picked it up for a limited series on Hulu), this book seems like a bestseller in the making.
Vagabonds! - Eloghosa Osunde
4th Estate - March 2022
What I’ve Heard: A ‘radical’ debut novel following the ‘vagabonds’ in bustling Lagos: the displaced, the queer and the rogue. Vagabonds! has been pitched as a ‘celebration of queerness in all its forms’ à la Akwaeke Emezi’s beautiful The Death of Vivek Oji.
Our Wives Under the Sea - Julia Armfield
Picador - March 2022
What I’ve Heard: It seems like everyone on gay book Twitter has a copy of this new Julia Armfield novel, and frankly, it’s not fair. Having loved Armfield’s short story collection Salt Slow, I’ll be first in line for Our Wives Under the Sea which promises sapphic romance, murky ocean imagery and a dash of horror.
People Person - Candice Carty-Williams
Orion - April 2022
What I’ve Heard: Queenie was one of my favourite books of 2019, so the news that 2022 was bringing a new Candice Carty-Williams’ novel made my whole week. People Person is another character-led book, this time with thirty-year-old Dimple Pennington (great name) and her four half-siblings at the helm. Dealing with absent fathers, friendship, and wayward boyfriends, People Person sounds like another smash hit in the making.
Fight Night - Miriam Toews
Faber - April 2022
What I’ve Heard: Miriam Toews’ first novel since 2018’s Women Talking once again centres on the bonds between women and the strength that can be drawn from them. Fight Night centres around precocious nine-year-old Swiv and her Grandmother Elvira as they fight to live on their own terms.
Honey & Spice - Bolu Babalola
Headline - July 2022
What I’ve Heard: The queen of rom-coms and the best person you can follow on Twitter, Bolu Babalola, is promising a summer of love with her debut novel Honey & Spice. I fell head over heels with her short story collection Love in Colour earlier in the year, once again proving I do actually like Romance books, just keep the cheesiness to a minimum.
Refractive Africa - Will Alexander
Granta - January 2022
What I’ve Heard: Granta’s poetry imprint has a track record for publishing the best of contemporary poetry, so I’m hoping Refractive Africa, a set of three poems ‘ruminating on diasporic witness, colonialism, invasion, and political resistance’, follows suit.
Blessed is the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head - Warsan Shire
Chatto & Windus - March 2022
What I’ve Heard: Warsan Shire shot to mainstream fame when she collaborated on Beyoncé’s Lemonade in 2016. Blessed is the Daughter… is her first full-length poetry collection, including themes of migration, womanhood, trauma and resilience. I would actually sell my kidney for this proof.
Time is a Mother - Ocean Vuong
Jonathan Cape - April 2022
What I’ve Heard: Ocean Vuong is one of those poets whose words feel completely full of life. Having devoured Vuong’s first collection Night Sky With Exit Wounds and his debut novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, I know I will love this book.
Abolition. Feminism. Now.
Hamish Hamilton - January 2022
What I’ve Heard: If I mention in front of someone that I believe in the abolition of the police and prisons, I’m usually met with a panicked response about ‘freeing all the rapists’. This landmark collaborative work from Angela Davis, Gina Dent, Erica Meiners, and Beth Richie, aims to show that the alignment between feminism and abolitionism is vital to true liberation.
Girl Online: A User’s Manual - Joanna Walsh
Verso - May 2022
What I’ve Heard: Ignore the fact that the title sounds like an article from Mizz magazine. This upcoming book from radical indie Verso tackles the experience of being a woman on the internet, from Cyberfeminism to the rise of the ‘first persona industrial complex’. Sounds like a great read for fans of Jia Tolentino and Pandora Sykes.
Transitional - Munroe Bergdorf
Bloomsbury - September 2022
What I’ve Heard: Activist and all-around-babe Munroe Bergdorf offers a manifesto on gender and transitioning that seeks to bring trans and cis people together to ‘heal, build community, and construct a better society’. I hugely admire Bergdorf, and am glad that publishing is amplifying her incredible voice.