A new interview about Eleven Hours is up at the terrific MUTHA magazine.
Maplewood Literary Award
I've been named the recipient of the 2017 Maplewood Literary Award, a prize given as part of the annual Ideas Festival taking place each March and April in Maplewood, NJ. Former recipients of the prize include Paul Auster and Dan Barry. As a long-time resident of the community and an enthusiastic user of the Maplewood Memorial Library, which sponsors the festival, I am especially delighted.
ELEVEN HOURS at the Huffington Post (again)
I seem to be getting some special love from the Huffington Post lately. First I was included in this list of "required reading": Colson Whitehead! Chang-Rae Lee! Eileen Myles! Karen Russell! Then they published their "Ultimate Feminist Back-to-School Reading List" and I am in that too: Joan Didion! Elena Ferrante! Helen Oyeyemi! Lynda Barry!
ELEVEN HOURS receives starred Library Journal review
Better late than never! "Beautiful and brutal, Pamela Erens’s (The Virgins) third novel is a revelatory meditation on relationships – between adults, lovers, friends, parents, and children of all ages. . . . Verdict: A quick, intense, and viscerally electrifying story . . . libraries should order immediately."
ELEVEN HOURS on the Not the Booker longlist
Sure, we'd all love to be on the Booker long list. But some of us are thrilled to be on the The Guardian's Not the Booker long list instead.
ELEVEN HOURS in the UK
Could I be more pleased? From the Sunday Herald (Scotland): "This is an immensely powerful, cannot-look-away novel of heart and bone and muscle and blood. The war novel has a rival, and it is breathtaking."
ELEVEN HOURS at Huffington Post
A thoughtful and thorough review, with a nice conclusion: "Eleven Hours shows childbirth without distaste or romance, as a uniquely agonizing and dangerous event that so often leads, somehow, to joy."
ELEVEN HOURS reviewed on NPR
In her review, Maureen Corrigan of Fresh Air calls Eleven Hours "a novel about the ultimate female adventure . . . fierce and vivid in its depiction of the exhaustion of the spirit and the rending of the flesh during childbirth . . . tough and emotionally authentic."
ELEVEN HOURS in The Wall Street Journal
In the Wall Street Journal, Sam Sacks calls Eleven Hours "exhilarating." He adds: "in the heart-in-throat climax, Ms. Erens maintains her poise and precision. The writing is candid without being sensational, detailed without being clinical. This admirable novel reminds us that even when childbirth is overseen by caring professionals in state-of-the-art facilities, it still arrives on waves of blood." (Most of this review is behind a paywall for non-subscribers.)
ELEVEN HOURS in the Boston Globe
Completely jazzed about this review in the Boston Globe. "Pamela Erens achieves the extraordinary in her third novel, `Eleven Hours': a visceral story about an intensely painful experience that manages to be an intense pleasure to read."
3 Radio Interviews: NPR, Brian Lehrer, Woodstock Radio
During publication week for ELEVEN HOURS I did three radio interviews: with Melissa Block for NPR's Weekend Edition, for The Brian Lehrer Show, and for Radio Woodstock. You can listen via the links.
ELEVEN HOURS in The New York Times
Jen McDonald reviews the new novel for the paper of record, and this author is truly pleased.
Slate: on childbirth (and the lack of it) in literature
A manifesto of sorts, from yours truly, over at Slate.
The Millions review of ELEVEN HOURS
Eleven Hours gets a two-fer over at The Millions! I so appreciated this thoughtful and thorough review, which honors me by dealing with my earlier books as well as the new one.
Interview at The Millions
Claire Cameron interviewed me for The Millions. I loved our talk about "big" vs. "small" books, compression vs. expansion, Kafka vs. George Eliot.
BOOKLIST praise for ELEVEN HOURS
"Erens’ short novel is beautiful, contained, and remarkable. That a novel about the universal, essential, yet ordinary and often addressed process of bringing about new life could be so fresh is something readers can get lost considering." (May 1 issue)
ELEVEN HOURS receives starred Publishers Weekly review (and is their Pick of the Week)
I can't really ask for better than this: "Written with incredible clarity, this third novel from Erens (The Virgins) is a wonder, shifting between two protagonists with ease to tell a deeply personal narrative of childbirth, complete with tension, horror, and deep, mature emotion. This novel does not sentimentalize the delivery of a child but rather examines the surprise—mental and physical—that accompanies it. Labor stories are as old as time, but Erens's novel feels incredibly fresh and vivid. An outstanding accomplishment."
ELEVEN HOURS receives starred Kirkus review
Kirkus starred reviews are very precious in this business, and I've never received one before. Now I have, for Eleven Hours. The entire review made me very happy because it suggested that the reviewer read the novel in very much the spirit in which I wrote it (this is far from always the case, even in reviews full of praise). The review is too long to reproduce here in full, but I'll quote from the very end: ". . . by combining portraits of a woman at the beginning of her pregnancy and a woman on the brink of motherhood, Erens shows that there is not one moment between these two experiences without peril. Powerful—aesthetically and viscerally."
Eleven Hours makes THE WEEK's "28 Books to Read in 2016"
Very happy to be in the company of Alexander Chee, Sarah Bakewell, Dana Spiotta, Melissa Broder, James McBride, Marie N'Diaye, Roxane Gay . . . and, well, everyone on this list.
Eleven Hours is "Most Anticipated" AGAIN (Flavorwire)
This time Eleven Hours makes Flavorwire's list of books they're waiting to see in 2016--along with works by Karl Ove Knausgaard, Alexander Chee, Dana Spiotta, Roxane Gay, Louise Erdrich, and Julian Barnes . . . whew!