Soft Skull: Home to First Novels

Richard Nash at Soft Skull Press has just bought two adventurous first novels from the same agent, Andrew Blauner, that he declares "will add two more unique voices to the chorus of young writers Soft Skull is publishing." The two books, on which agent and publisher are sharing translation rights sales, are P by Andrew Lewis Conn, a Phi Beta Kappa Cornell grad, now a filmwriter, whose book is a tribute to Ulysses and shares some of its structure; and The Long Haul by Amanda Stern, an actor/playwright who has done standup comedy and an off-Broadway play, and is likened by agent and editor to "a female Denis Johnson." Both will be published next year, Conn's first.