In the first installation of their debut novelists series UPCOMING / UP & COMING, Jason and Brett talk to three new writers about their soon-to-be released books. Christina Cooke (Broughtupsy, Jan 23) talks about how it took 13 years to write and publish her book; Daniel Lefferts (Ways & Means, Feb 6) shares how his novel emerged from a short story he wrote in college; and Rebecca K Reilly (Greta & Valdin, Feb 6) explains the unique publishing process in New Zealand, where her book has been a bestseller for over 3 years.

Christina Cooke’s writing has appeared in The Caribbean Writer, PRISM International, Prairie Schooner, Epiphany: A Literary Journal, and elsewhere. A MacDowell Fellow, Journey Prize winner, and a Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award winner, she holds a Master of Arts from the University of New Brunswick and a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Christina was born in Jamaica and is now a Canadian citizen who lives and writes in New York City. Broughtupsy is her debut novel.

Daniel Lefferts was born in upstate New York and now lives in Hudson, New York. He holds an MFA from Columbia University and has taught writing at Columbia and Rutgers. Ways and Means is his first novel.

Rebecca K Reilly (Ngaati Hine, Ngaati Rehua Ngaatiwai ki Aotea), born 1991, is a Maaori novelist from Waitaakere, New Zealand. She has a BA (hons) in German and European studies from the University of Auckland and an MA from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington, where she won the Adam Foundation Prize in Creative Writing for 2019. Greta & Valdin is her first novel.