Beaut

The spare, poetic prose of Raymond Carver meets Jenny Offiill's Department of Speculation and Elizabeth Strout's My Name Is Lucy Barton. In a period when many families in the heartland are shattered by drug addiction, this timely novel chronicles one woman's attempts to understand and survive her blended family, including her meth-addicted son. BEAUT, the winner of the 2018 Lee Smith Novel Prize, is the first novel of acclaimed poet Donald Morrill. It has garnered early, lavish praise from Wiley Cash (The Last Ballad) and Taylor Brown (The River of Kings). Morrill, former board member of AWP, will attract attention in the literary market and has already created a buzz with his reading at SIBA, which should result in some early bookseller reviews. Morrill's prose is gorgeous, but not at the expense of this novel's layered narrative and dead-on characterizations. Comps:

• Sweetgirl by Travis Mulhauser
• Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
• All the News I Need by Joan Frank