Algonquin Books is at BEA with some heavy hitters on its fall list. Newcomer Ron Childress, 2014 PEN/Bellwether Prize winner for And West Is West (Oct.), is the first male winner of the prize since its inception in 2000, when it was known as the Bellwether Prize. Algonquin has published the prizewinners since 2008. Craig Popelars, director of marketing and sales for Algonquin, says, “When we get that manuscript, there’s that in-house sense of discovery. And West Is West is such a topical book, about drone strikes and the ramifications of what happens when technology and warfare intersect.”

There’s a lot of excitement about B.A. Shapiro’s next book, The Muralist, a November release that combines mystery, history, and the art world of Mark Rothko, Lee Krasner, and Jackson Pollock at the dawn of WWII. Her previous Algonquin book, The Art Forger (2013), was a huge success, with 400,000 copies in print and still selling. “One of the things that I really love about Barbara’s writing,” Popelars says, “is she takes you into something, into the art world, into a certain period of time, a certain place, and after you read it, you want to learn more about what she wrote about.”

Coming this September is Jonathan Evison’s This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance. Popelars notes, “He’s nothing but trouble. We’re surprised that we can get him here, that his parole officer allowed him out of state, even. Of course I’m joking, but everyone in the business knows the energy that Johnny brings wherever he goes.” In Evison’s latest novel, Harriet Chance, at age 79, goes on an Alaska cruise set up by her late husband. “The whole Inside Passage is really Harriet’s inside passage—she’s reflecting on the trajectory of her life from being a child to now being a widow. But there’s humor, too. Johnny understands that you have to have some ballast in the boat. To get through the grief or loss, you have to be able to get to the next day by having that humor and clarity.”

All three authors will be signing galleys of their books in the Algonquin booth (1039). B.A. Shapiro will be signing today,

2:30–3:30 p.m.; tomorrow Ron Childress will be signing, 11 a.m.–noon, and Jonathan Evison, 2–3 p.m.

This article appeared in the May 27, 2015 edition of PW BEA Show Daily.