FINANCIAL SERVICES

John Heshelman

Securian Financial, St. Paul, announced the promotion of John Heshelman to vice president and chief investment officer. Heshelman joined Securian Financial in 2021 as the head of private credit.

EDUCATION

Kiddie Academy, a national chain of franchised early childhood learning centers, announced the planned opening and ground breaking of a location at 805 Stephens Way in Woodbury. The franchise is owned and operated by Andrew and Amye Lemon, and Josh and Caitlin Orloff.

FOOD INDUSTRY

QualiTru Sampling Systems, an Oakdale-based liquid sampling service and equipment provider for dairy and food industry quality and safety controls, announced David Roesser as chief executive officer. He succeeds Ian Davis, who is retiring. Roesser joins QualiTru after serving as CEO of Encina Development Group.

HONORS

The Minnesota Elder Justice Center, a Minneapolis-based support organization for vulnerable elder adults and their families, announced Martin Fleischhacker as its 2025 Jane Ochrumowycz Award for Advocacy recipient. Fleischhacker was senior financial fraud ombudsman and civil enforcement liaison at the Minnesota Department of Commerce. The award recognizes Minnesotans for their outstanding advocacy for vulnerable adults. … The Courage Project, a national initiative of major philanthropies and nonprofits, announced that Isaac Garcia from Isaac’s Blessing Bags in St. Paul is included in its second slate of awardees. Issac’s Blessing Bags supports homeless individuals by providing basic needs through bags filled with essential lifestyle goods. The Courage Project is designed to honor everyday acts of civic bravery that safeguard democracy and strengthen community life.

LAW

Fredrikson, Minneapolis, announced that attorney Luke Vetter has joined its Real Estate & Construction Group. … Fish & Richardson, Minneapolis, announced the promotion of Elham Dehbozorgi to general counsel, effective July 1. She succeeds Roger D. Feldman, who will retire on Dec. 31. Dehbozorgi was named the firm’s inaugural chief legal risk officer in august 2024. … The Minnesota State Bar Association announced the following members of its 2025-2026 Executive Committee: President: Tom Pack, Faegre Drinker; President-Elect: Kenya Bodden, Amazon; Treasurer: Nicole Kettwick, Brandt Kettwick Defense; Secretary: Sarah Soucie Eyberg, Soucie Eyberg Law, and Brooke Hein, Monarch Healthcare Management, chair of the New Lawyers Section. … The Ramsey County Bar Association announced the following new leaders for the 2025-26 bar year: President: Maya Missaghi, Moersch, Dorsey & Hahn; President-Elect Racey Rodne, Vice President: Judge Joseph Meyer; Secretary/Treasurer: Sheina Long; immediate past president: Andrew Rorvig. Cheryl Dalby serves as the CEO of the Ramsey County Bar Association, Minnesota State Bar Association, and Hennepin County Bar Association.

MANUFACTURING

Landscape Structures, a Delano, Minn.-based designer and maker of outdoor playground equipment, announced the promotion of Karlye Emerson to president and CEO, succeeding Pat Faust who has retired. Emerson began her career at Landscape Structures in human resources and was promoted to executive vice president in 2021.

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

Avivomed, a Roseville-based developer of sleep apnea treatments, announced Dan Brounstein as chief executive officer and board member. Brounstein succeeds Steve Masson, who retired in May. Brounstein previously served as chief strategy officer at Saluda Medical. … Medtronic announced the appointment of appointed Dr. Joon Lee, CEO at Emory Healthcare, to its board of directors. Medtronic is a Dublin, Ireland-based maker of electronic heart devices and spine treatments with executive offices in Fridley.

PHILANTHROPY

Ameriprise Financial, Minneapolis, announced it has donated nearly $2 million to more than 85 nonprofits across the U.S. as part of its first-round of 2025 grants. … Andersen Corp., a Bayport-based maker of windows and doors for residential construction, announced the following recipients of its spring 2025 grant round: Lakeview Health Foundation, $500,000 to expand health care access through the Lakeview Hospital campuses in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and Every Meal, $100,000 to support capital and capacity-building efforts, including building acquisition, for its “Setting the Table” campaign.

SPONSORSHIPS

The 2026 Special Olympics USA Games announced Minneapolis-based Target as a platinum partner and the official tennis sponsor. The games will be held in the Twin Cities, June 20–26, 2026.

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EMAIL ITEMS to businessnews@pioneerpress.com.

INDIANAPOLIS — Napheesa Collier played the role of All-Star captain perfectly.

First, the Lynx superstar made all the right picks for her roster. Then she answered all the labor questions. And finally, she showed everyone — even the WNBA’s young guns — how to stay focused on basketball.

The five-time All-Star scored a record 36 points, grabbed nine rebounds and led the aptly named Team Collier past Team Clark 151-131 in the highest scoring All-Star Game in WNBA history. Naturally, Collier was selected the MVP.

Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier holds the MVP trophy following a WNBA All-Star basketball game against Team Clark, Saturday, July 19, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Collier made 13 of 16 shots, four from the specially designed AT&T logo 4-point-line that seemed perfectly aligned for Caitlin Clark, the other team captain who didn’t play because of a right groin injury. And it was all by design.

“I tried to make my team not have that many new players,” Collier said. “I’ve played with a lot of them, and so it was good to get back with them, play with … some of those new players I haven’t played with before.”

But for Collier, this weekend in Indianapolis was about much more than a single game.

The vice president of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association executive committee, co-founder of the Unrivaled basketball league and the league’s first one-on-one tournament champion, never got distracted by a demanding schedule that forced her to prioritize the WNBA’s future over adding another award to her trophy case.

Collier spent Thursday afternoon negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement and Friday answering questions from a throng of reporters detailing the meeting. On Saturday, she shared the pregame stage with Clark for a news conference between the captains. And after the game, there were even more questions about the CBA.

“I feel like I haven’t been able to forget it (Thursday’s meeting) because people won’t let us, which is amazing,” Collier said. “Just the awareness we’ve raised this weekend, you guys asking these questions, the fans doing the chants, that, like, gave me chills.”

But Collier also helped fuel the effort.

She, like the other All-Stars, wore a T-shirt that read “Pay us what you owe us” during pregame warmups.

Then she reinforced the message with a historic game.

Collier broke the All-Star Game’s individual scoring record while her team scored a record 82 first-half points. Another of Collier’s picks, Seattle guard Skylar Diggins, became the first player with an All-Star triple-double in the same venue where she led Notre Dame to the national championship game more than a decade ago.

And Collier even connected with rookie Paige Bueckers, her fellow former UConn star from Hopkins, for a basket. The captain couldn’t have scripted it any better.

“We set a lot of records,” Collier said. “Skylar had a triple-double, which is insane. It was just so fun. We had a great time.”

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Edward Lotterman

Donald Trump keeps flipping and flopping on tariffs. Many are scheduled to kick in on Aug. 1, but who knows. Nevertheless, U.S. households and businesses need to gird their loins for the biggest and fastest economic adjustments since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought us into World War II.

As things play out, we will make adjustments to what we buy, what we can sell, where we will work and now we will spend our free time.

How much will consumers cut their consumption of taxed imported goods? How much will we shift to substitutes or spend our money on unrelated alternatives?

How fast will domestic production of items hit with import taxes grow, as Trump suggests? And what about production ramping up in countries facing 10% U.S. tariffs when the historic dominant exporter faces 50% rates by the U.S.?

Economics offers us a tool to understand these issues — ones that will be critical over the next decade. It’s called “elasticities,” and it’s one of the fundamental concepts in economic analysis.

Elasticities explains and measures the degree to which changes in one variable affect another variable. Applied broadly they facilitate comparisons between different products, different eras, different countries and different currencies. The key is that they use objective percentage changes rather than subjective changes in quantity and value.

Start with an example of Mexican avocados facing high U.S. tariffs. Guacamole lovers like me wonder how much and how quickly U.S. production might increase. Not considering elasticities, ag economists might analyze historical data and conclude, “When avocado prices go up by 10 cents a pound, U.S. production increases by 232,000 crates per year.”

How does that compare to, say, Spain? “When the price there goes up by half a euro per kilo, output increases by 32,000 metric tons.” OK, what about fresh sweet corn? “Well, for every 25-cent increase per dozen ears, U.S. production goes up by 317,000 bushels.”

See the problem? How many avocados per crate or pounds of avocados? How many ears of corn per bushel? Using this approach, one must examine many years of data to get statistically valid conclusions. But doing that, we then would also have to consider that the overall buying power of a U.S. dollar has fallen by half since 1998 and that Europe now uses euros rather than francs, guilders and marks?

The solution is to ignore price and quantity units. Applying elasticities, we can pose all the changes in percentage terms. “When the price of avocados rises 10%, U.S. consumption falls by 4% … ”

You can apply that comparison to Spain or sweet corn or asparagus without getting into pounds, kilos, cases, bushels, dollars, euros or any other unit. You can analyze changes in price-quantity relationships in the 1960s when we ate a half pound of avocados per person annually and could get fresh sweet corn over a 60-day season. Now we eat nine pounds per person per year and can buy corn over at least 120 days. Forget quantity units. Ignore price changes. The percentage relationships alone give analytic power.

These “elasticities” can be used in all sorts of economic relationships. The common element is that we look at the percentage change in one variable relative to the percentage change in a related one.

Consider common examples:

• “By what percentage does U.S. consumption of avocados fall when their price increases by 15%?” That is an elasticity of demand, specifically their “own-price elasticity.”

• “By what percentage does U.S. consumption of corn chips fall when avocado prices increase by 15%?” That is an elasticity of demand, but a “cross-price” one where we look at the relationship between the price of one good and the consumption of a related good.

• By what percentage do consumer purchases of chunky tomato salsa rise when the price of avocadoes drops by 12%? That is also a “cross-price elasticity,” but one for products that are “substitutes” for each other. The prior example of chips and a key guacamole ingredient involve “complements,” or things that are consumed together. For consumers, salsa and guac compete with each other.

Then look at the producer side.

• By what percentage does U.S. production of avocados rise when import prices increase by 15%? That’s an elasticity of supply. The idea of related goods that are complements or substitutes similarly applies to supply and production as well as consumption.

• If the price of gasoline falls, what happens to production of paving asphalt? It increases because asphalt is a “complement in production” of refining crude oil into fuels. With lower prices, more gasoline is sold, more crude oil refined and more asphalt produced, even if the price of asphalt stays the same.

The common term for “complement” here would be “by-product.” When we had many integrated steel mills, higher steel output increased percentage production of Portland cement made from blast furnace slag even if cement prices had not changed a dime.

In Minnesota, despite predominance of corn and soybeans, oats and barley remain viable and are competing crops using near-identical inputs. They are “substitutes in production.” Oats is ideal for horses. When Canterbury Downs and hundreds of associated horses came in, the local price of oats rose compared to barley. Planted acres of oats increased slightly and barley fell.

In Manitoba, barley and canola are substitutes for farmers. Bad crops of corn and soy in the U.S. corn belt may reduce output of corn and soy oil, increasing prices. This may reduce next year’s sowing of barley in Manitoba. Farmers may plant more canola in the hopes of catching at least the tail end of the vegetable oil price increase.

Applications of elatsticies are almost endless and can be used to understand virtually all cause-and-effect relationships. Pollution: By what percentage would China’s emissions of carbon drop if the price of its coal increased 15%? Education: By what percentage do completed family sizes for Rwandan women fall for every 10% increase in the numbers of them who complete secondary school? Development: By what percentage does conversion of Brazil’s “campos cerrados” dry forests to farmland increase for every 5% increase in Chinese household incomes and thus of pork consumption?

Now let’s apply this to how the U.S. economy adjusts to Trump’s enormous tariff shock — regardless of whether it even shows up in actual price and quantity data.

The June Consumer Price Index showed an increase in the price of toys. Over time, how many fewer toys will parents buy? Will kids simply have to play with them longer? Will people buy more durable toys? Will trips to waterparks or minigolf outings make up for less lavish birthday bonanzas?

Furniture prices also went up. Will prices of used items at yard sales spike? Will skilled restorers have long waiting lists? With some women’s clothing also showing increases, will skilled tailors who can restyle and spiff up used dresses, tops and pants be able to raise rates without losing customers? Will charity shops see more buyers? Fewer donations? Both? Will someone seeking a master’s degree in consumer econ get funding from Goodwill for a thesis forecasting how used clothing donations and sales will respond to higher U.S. import tariffs?

Understand that nearly all elasticities vary with the length of time available for both producers and consumers to make adjustments. In the short run, it is hard for a coffee shop to change either menu or suppliers. Given more time, it can. Building a new brass foundry might take two years. In the meantime, industrial brass casting users will have to pay more for imports, eating some of the costs and passing some along.

So don’t believe assertions that tariffs will be a one-time price shock. Intertwined economic relationships are highly complex. Predicting details of how everything will fall out is nigh impossible.

Related Articles

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Real World Economics: Bonds Part 2: How this affects us

St. Paul economist and writer Edward Lotterman can be reached at stpaul@edlotterman.com.

Summertime means vacations — and vacations mean books. (And sunscreen and cold drinks. But mostly books.)

The season is traditionally a busy one for publishers, who often release some of their most exciting titles over the next few months. This summer is no exception: July, August, and September will see the publication of page-turning fiction and fascinating nonfiction.

Whatever your tastes, you’re bound to find something in these 33 books worth buying from your favorite local store and taking to the beach (or just your backyard) with an iced beverage in hand.

“I Want to Burn This Place Down” 

Author: Maris Kreizman 

What It’s About: The debut book from culture blog pioneer and Literary Hub columnist Kreizman is the funny and angry account of her disillusionment with the Democratic Party (among other U.S. institutions) and her move further to the left over the past several years. 

Publication Date: Out now

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“Cry for Me, Argentina: My Life As a Failed Child Star” 

Author: Tamara Yajia

What It’s About: Los Angeles-based comedian Yajia grew up in both Argentina and the U.S., and she worked as a child actress before reaching her teen years. Her book chronicles not only the misadventures of growing up in an oddball family, but also creative endeavors that include joining a band and putting on her own one-woman show.

Publication Date: Out now

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“Archive of Unknown Universes” 

Author: Ruben Reyes Jr. 

What It’s About: Southern California native Reyes had a very good 2024. His debut book, the short story collection “There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven,” was published to glowing reviews and was a finalist for the California Book Award and the Story Prize. His first novel follows two young people who use a device that can look into alternate versions of lives to discover the truth about their Salvadoran families.

Publication Date: Out now

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“Wanting” 

Author: Claire Jia 

What It’s About: The debut novel from Los Angeles author Jia, who also writes for television and video games, follows Lian, a woman in Beijing whose life is changed when her longtime friend, Wenyu, comes back to China after spending a decade in California. Wenyu lets Lian in on a long-kept secret that throws Lian’s life into disarray.

Publication Date: Out now

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“Sunburn” 

Author: Chloe Michelle Howarth 

What It’s About: Irish author Howarth’s novel, set in a small town in the early 1990s, tells the story of Lucy, a young woman who chafes against the expectation that she’ll marry a man and have kids. She develops romantic feelings for her best friend, Susannah, who doesn’t want to keep their relationship a secret.

Publication Date: Out now

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“Make Your Way Home” 

Author: Carrie R. Moore 

What It’s About: Moore, the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Steinbeck Writers’ Retreat, makes her book debut with this short story collection that tells the story of Black men and women searching for home in various locations across the American South.

Publication Date: Out now

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“The Payback”

Author: Kashana Cauley 

What It’s About: Television writer Cauley’s first novel, “The Survivalists,” was a hit with critics. She brings the same insight and dark humor to her new one. Partially set in the Glendale Galleria, the novel follows Jada, a recently unemployed woman on the run from the “Debt Police” who teams up with two friends in an attempt to take down her student loan company.

Publication Date: Out now

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“No Body No Crime” 

Author: Tess Sharpe 

What It’s About: The latest novel from California-raised author Sharpe (“The Girl in Question”) tells the story of Mel Tillman, a rural private investigator who goes searching for her long-lost friend Chloe — a woman who she fell in love with as a teenager, and with whom she killed a boy who had been terrorizing them. She does find Chloe, but that leads to a whole new mess of trouble, and the two are forced to go on the run.

Publication Date: Out now

ALSO SEE: 17 must-read summer romance novels

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“The Dance and the Fire”

Author Daniel Saldaña París, translated by Christina MacSweeney

What It’s About: Saldaña París, who writes fiction, poetry, and essays, is one of Mexico’s most exciting and acclaimed writers. His latest novel follows three high school friends — once members of a love triangle — who reunite in Cuernavaca as wildfires threaten the city.

Publication Date: July 29

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“Black Genius: Essays on an American Legacy”

Author: Tre Johnson 

What It’s About: Journalist and educator Johnson’s book is a reflection on the innovations of brilliant Black creators, artists, and everyday people. He tackles subjects including fashion inspired by 1990s street art, and the comedy of pioneering performer and author Dick Gregory.

Publication Date: July 29

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“Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of ‘Born to Run’” 

Author: Peter Ames Carlin 

What It’s About: Journalist Carlin told the story of alternative-rock legends R.E.M. in his last book. In his newest one, he returns to a favorite subject: Bruce Springsteen, about whom he wrote a book, “Bruce,” in 2012. The new one tells the story behind the recording of the Boss’s classic 1975 album. (Fans who prefer the stark, acoustic Bruce might also want to read Warren Zanes’ book about the making of “Nebraska,” and see the movie based on it, which opens in October.)

Publication Date: Aug. 5

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“Moderation”

Author: Elaine Castillo

What It’s About: Bay Area native Castillo made literary waves with her debut novel, “America Is Not the Heart,” in 2018. Her new novel introduces readers to Girlie Delmundo, a virtual reality moderator whose life becomes complicated when she falls for her company’s co-founder.

Publication Date: Aug. 5

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“We Should All Be Birds”

Author: Brian Buckbee with Carol Ann Fitzgerald

What It’s About: Montana author Buckbee was reeling from the loss of a loved one and from a mysterious illness that left him unable to read or write because of agonizing headaches. His life is changed when he encounters an injured baby pigeon and nurses it back to health. Buckbee wrote the memoir with help from his fellow author Fitzgerald.

Publication Date: Aug. 5 

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“Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama” 

Author: Alexis Okeowo 

What It’s About: New Yorker staff writer Okeowo, who won the 2018 PEN Open Book Award for “A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa,” returns with a book about her family and her home state — it’s an innovative mix of memoir and journalism.

Publication Date: Aug. 5

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“Songs for Other People’s Weddings”

Author: David Levithan with songs by Jens Lekman

What It’s About: The new novel from Levithan (“Boy Meets Boy”) follows a wedding singer whose girlfriend has gone to New York to work, leaving him unhappy and confused. The book contains original songs by Swedish indie-pop singer Lekman.

Publication Date: Aug. 5

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“Putting Myself Together: Writing 1974 –”

Author: Jamaica Kincaid

What It’s About: The latest offering from Antiguan American author Kincaid (“The Autobiography of My Mother”) collects her nonfiction writing over the past 50 years, including pieces about her move to New York at the age of 16 and her interest in gardening.

Publication Date: Aug. 5

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“Open Wide”

Author: Jessica Gross

What It’s About: “Hysteria” author Gross’s latest is a surreal, darkly comic novel about an awkward radio host who becomes obsessed with a surgeon and former soccer player she meets at a party, and is determined to do whatever it takes to get close to him.

Publication Date: Aug. 5

ALSO SEE: ​12 new books to send restless readers on a summer road trip

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“Hotshot: A Life on Fire”

Author: River Selby

What It’s About: Selby, who has written essays on fire preparation for this newspaper, had a challenging early life, surviving homelessness, drug abuse and sexual assault. Their life changed when they were hired as a “hotshot” wildland firefighter; this memoir tells the story of life on the job and examines how climate change and colonization have forced the world to enter a new, terrifying era.

Publication Date: Aug. 12

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“Seduction Theory”

Author: Emily Adrian

What It’s About: “Everything Here Is Under Control” author Adrian returns with a novel about two married creative writing professors whose marriage is rocked by infidelity. It’s one of the summer’s most anticipated novels.

Publication Date: Aug. 12

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“If You Don’t Like This, I Will Die: An Influencer Memoir”

Author: Lee Tilghman 

What It’s About: Better known as “Lee From America,” Tilghman was a wellness influencer with a large following and a steady income. But she was hiding something: Her constant need for attention and likes was hurting her to the point that she entered a mental health facility. This book tells the story of her decision to give up her carefully curated online life.

Publication Date: Aug. 12

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“Rehab: An American Scandal” 

Author: Shoshana Walter

What It’s About: Pulitzer Prize finalist Walter’s new book is an exposé of how the U.S. fumbled its response to the opioid crisis by focusing on punishment over rehabilitation. She tells the story of four real people in the book, including a woman in a Los Angeles suburb who started investigating for-profit rehab programs after her son died in a sober living home.

Publication Date: Aug. 12

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“To Lose a War: The Fall and Rise of the Taliban”

 Author: Jon Lee Anderson

What It’s About: New Yorker staff writer Anderson is a veteran of war-zone reporting. His latest book collects his pieces about Afghanistan, covering the period before the September 11, 2001, terror attacks to the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.

Publication Date: Aug. 12

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“What We Left Unsaid”

Author: Winnie M. Li 

What It’s About: The third novel from Li, following the well-received “Dark Chapter” and “Complicit,” follows the three estranged Chu siblings on a road trip to visit their ailing mother; their voyage takes them on Route 66 and to the Grand Canyon.

Publication Date: Aug. 19

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“Where Are You Really From” 

Author: Elaine Hsieh Chou

What It’s About: California author Chou delighted readers with her 2022 debut, the funny and sweet novel “Disorientation.” She’s following that up with this short story collection that spans genres, including one about a mail-order bride from Taiwan who is shipped to California in a cardboard box.

Publication Date: Aug. 19

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“The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything: How Carbon Dioxide Made Our World”

Author: Peter Brannen

What It’s About: Brannen, the science journalist and “The Ends of the World” author, explains how carbon dioxide is more important than most of us realize. While it’s true that the chemical compound is contributing to climate change, it also has made the world a livable place for billions of years.

Publication Date: Aug. 26

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“Mercy”

Author: Joan Silber

What It’s About: Silber is one of America’s most underappreciated fiction authors. In her new novel, her first since “Secrets of Happiness” in 2021, she tells the story of Ivan, a man living in 1970s New York who is haunted by his decision to leave his best friend in a hospital emergency room after the two experiment with heroin. 

Publication Date: Sept. 2

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“Wrecking Ball: Race, Friendship, God, and Football”

Author: Rick Bass

What It’s About: Bass is a double threat, known for his beautiful fiction and incisive nonfiction about the natural world. His latest is a departure: a chronicle of his unlikely stint playing semi-pro football in Brenham, Texas, in his sixties. 

Publication Date: Sept. 2

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“Mother Mary Comes to Me”

Author: Arundhati Roy 

What It’s About: Roy’s debut novel, “The God of Small Things,” was a literary sensation when it was published in 1997. Her latest book — its title inspired by the Beatles’ “Let It Be” — is a memoir about her relationship with her mother, Mary Roy, the Indian women’s rights activist who died in 2022.

Publication Date: Sept. 2

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“The Shadow of the Mammoth”

Author: Fabio Morábito, translated by Curtis Bauer

What It’s About: The latest book from Mexican poet Morábito to be translated into English is a short story collection that touches on themes such as loneliness, imagination, and deception. Morábito’s first story collection, “Mothers and Dogs,” also translated by Bauer, is also worth seeking out.

Publication Date: Sept. 2

ALSO SEE: 33 new books you’ll want to read this summer from independent publishers

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“The Belles”

Author: Lacey N. Dunham 

What It’s About: The debut novel from Dunham is a perfect fit for readers into the dark academia genre. The book tells the story of Deena Williams, who attends a private college in 1951 and joins an alliance with five other students. Deena has a secret past, though, that she fears might be revealed.

Publication Date: Sept. 9

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“Kaplan’s Plot”

Author: Jason Diamond 

What It’s About: Diamond is the author of the critically acclaimed nonfiction books “Searching for John Hughes” and “The Sprawl”; his debut novel follows Elijah Mendes, who moves back to Chicago to care for his ailing mother. He discovers that his family owns a Jewish cemetery, which leads him to explore their secret history, bringing him closer to his mother.

Publication Date: Sept. 16

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“The Wilderness” 

Author: Angela Flournoy 

What It’s About: Flournoy’s majestic debut, “The Turner House,” was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her new novel, 10 years in the making, follows five Black women navigating their sometimes messy lives over the course of 20 years.

Publication Date: Sept. 16

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“Articulate: A Deaf Memoir of Voice”

Author: Rachel Kolb

What It’s About: Stanford-educated Kolb made history as the first signing deaf Rhodes scholar at Oxford University. In her memoir, she writes about learning American Sign Language and spoken language, and how people express themselves and communicate with one another.

Publication Date: Sept. 16

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