Whitney Peeling

Review: Meet the man who tried to establish a Black state within the U.S. Nonfiction: Caleb Gayle’s gorgeous “Black Moses” illuminates a forgotten figure from our racial past.

@hamiltoncain.bsky.social calls BLACK MOSES @calebgayle.bsky.social "eloquent" & "engrossing." "Gayle does more than just rescue a forgotten yet crucial figure; he places McCabe at the center of radical liberation." @riverheadbooks.bsky.social @startribune.com www.startribune.com/edward-mccab...

August 2025 Books By Black Authors We Can't Wait to Read | The Root The summer may be almost over, but great books by Black authors are still coming in hot.

Tx to @therootdotcom.bsky.social for featuring BLACK MOSES @calebgayle.bsky.social in its August Books round-up! @riverheadbooks.bsky.social @thegernertco.bsky.social

www.theroot.com/august-2025-...

If you don’t understand Oklahoma, you can’t understand America A Black man like me is not supposed to love Oklahoma. But in studying my home state’s history of violence, theft and wild ambitions, I learned to reckon with its legacy

"If we are serious about holding this country together, we have to reckon w/ the real American inheritance, where ambition & betrayal, dreaming & dispossession, are not opposite. They are co-tenants." @calebgayle.bsky.social BLACK MOSES (8/12) @us.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

Among the many reasons I cherish Sasha Bonét's THE WATERBEARERS (Knopf, Sept 16): its incomparably authentic, mold-shattering depiction of womanhood & single motherhood. Ty @publisherswkly.bsky.social for giving your cover to this life-changing new work. Get ready, world.

22 Books Coming in August

Love seeing Caleb Gayle's superb BLACK MOSES (Riverhead, Aug 12) on this list!

@nytimes.com @calebgayle.bsky.social @riverheadbooks.bsky.social @thegernertco.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/b...

At the top of my reading list: @calebgayle.bsky.social's forthcoming BLACK MOSES, about a 19th-century Black visionary who dreamed of a state governed by and for Black people. It's my favorite kind of story--a buried history of resistance and possibility.

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717975...

10 emerging writers win Whiting Awards The awards, which come with a $50K purse, have helped launch the writing careers of many now well-known authors, including Colson Whitehead, Ocean Vuong, Alice McDermott and Jia Tolentino.

Congratulations to the stupendous new cohort of Whiting Award winners!!!

@npr.org @mtaeckens.bsky.social
@whitingfoundation.bsky.social

www.npr.org/2025/04/09/n...

Well thank you, you kind soul, you

Bubbles of Interest: An Interview with Independent Publicist Whitney Peeling On the vexed question of "Should I hire a freelance publicist for my book?" plus further proof that it pays to be kind.

Just call me Bubbles

@aliahanna.bsky.social @broadside-pr.bsky.social
aliahabib.substack.com/p/bubbles-of...

Andrew Garfield, Percival Everett and Attica Locke among L.A. Times Book Prize finalists Andrew Garfield, Percival Everett and Attica Locke are among the finalists for the 45th Los Angeles Times Book Prizes.

THE BLACK UTOPIANS + THE LIGHT EATERS are @latimes.com Bk Prize finalists! 👏 👏👏 to @zoeschlanger.bsky.social @sarahjgrimm.bsky.social Aaron Robertson (+ to @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social, rep'd by @broadside-pr.bsky.social's @mtaeckens.bsky.social, for ABSOLUTION)!

www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

KB you are too kind. I do love this book, though!!

YES to this (and thanks also to Victor Luckerson, whose book, BUILT FROM THE FIRE, was frequently referenced in the report).

The 75 best books of 2024 - The Boston Globe Boston Globe book critics give us their favorites from a year of great titles.

Ty @bostonglobe.com @katekilla.bsky.social for including THE BLACK UTOPIANS/Aaron Robertson, THE LIGHT EATERS/@zoeschlanger.bsky.social, + more @broadside-pr.bsky.social projects here! @fsgbooks.bsky.social @harpercollins.bsky.social @sarahjgrimm.bsky.social

www.bostonglobe.com/2024/12/13/a...

Remember the names of these new Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grantees - their projects will start to roll out in the next year or so and each one is truly more spectacular than the next!

Love this list - thank you, Bethanne!

Best Books of 2024: Top 10 Picks | The New York Public Library Noteworthy new books for readers of all ages recommended by NYPL's expert librarians and staff.

More Thanksgiving-timed good news for Aaron Robertson and THE BLACK UTOPIANS: The New York Public Library has named the book a 2024 Top Ten Best Book for Adults! @fsgbooks.bsky.social

www.nypl.org/blog/2024/11...

100 Notable Books of 2024 Here are the year’s notable fiction, poetry and nonfiction, chosen by the staff of The New York Times Book Review.

Hooray! Hooray! Aaron Robertson’s beautiful debut, THE BLACK UTOPIANS (a “sensitive, often deeply personal exploration of utopianism in Black American thought and life”) is a @nytimes.com Notable Book! @fsgbooks.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

RIFFS ON A TEXT: adapting and digesting the work of Koltés - Pig Iron SEPTEMBER + OCTOBER 2024 - While David has incorporated mindfulness practices into his choreography and composition for decades, this workshop represents a kind of beta-test of a new framing of this m...

Performers, creators, writers: only 2 spots left for this workshop (beginning 12/4) with Pulitzer (and Whiting)-winning playwright James Ijames and Pig Iron Theatre Co’s Dan Rothenberg. Deadline this Wed!

pigiron.org/school/works...

How did I not know this?

'The Black Utopians' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 Here's why it made the list

Love seeing Aaron Robertson's THE BLACK UTOPIANS (and so many other Broadside PR-rep'd books) in TIME's glorious list of 100 Must Read Books of 2024!

time.com/7172750/the-...

After UArts closure, Pig Iron School finds new MFA partner in Rowan University The Glassboro, NJ-based university will confer degrees to the graduates of the the Olde Kensington theater school

Pig Iron School's alum include Jen Kidwell & Scott Shepherd (Underground Railroad Game, a NYT Top 25 Best American Play Since Angels In America), Alex Tatarsky (2024 Whitney Biennial artist) + many others. Its graduates will continue to impress so watch this space!

www.inquirer.com/arts/theater...

7 New Books We Recommend This Week Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

The @nytimes.com names THE BLACK UTOPIANS by Aaron Robertson one of 7 new recommended books this week!

www.nytimes.com/2024/10/17/b...

Let’s Get Lit: Essence’s Top 20 Book Picks For Fall 2024 | Essence Books are written to shift narratives. Here are Essence’s Top 20 Best Books that should be on your Fall Reading List.

"[In THE BLACK UTOPIANS, Aaron] Robertson engages with serious and important themes without being didactic or heavy-hearted. On the contrary, the knowledge shared within the pages of this book is quite freeing and liberating."

www.essence.com/entertainmen...

Black Utopians: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America by Aaron Robertson Translator Robertson (Beyond Babylon) debuts with an ambitious and captivating group portrait of African American visionaries wh...

My day is made! Starred PW review of THE BLACK UTOPIANS (FSG; 10/1) by Aaron Robertson:

"[A] must-read...Robertson paints a vivid and beguiling picture of the indomitable human yearning for a safe and nurturing home."

www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-374-60...

Writers to Watch: 10 Noteworthy Nonfiction Debuts, Fall 2024 This season’s crop of notable nonfiction debuts tackle the nature of life, the role of religion in American culture, Indigenous histories, and book bans

THE BLACK UTOPIANS: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America (FSG; Oct 1) and its brilliant author, Aaron Robertson, named one of 10 Noteworthy Nonfiction Debuts for Fall '24 / Writers to Watch by PW.

www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Opinion | If the Survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre Can’t Receive Reparations, Who Will? The courts refused to punish the attackers or offer redress to hundreds of newly destitute people. This injustice continues.

"If the Survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre Can’t Receive Reparations, Who Will?" The unstoppable Victor Luckerson (BUILT FROM THE FIRE, RH) in today's NYT