Give the gifts of these Columbia and mid-Missouri authors this holiday season
Scouring best-of lists and literary gift guides — including the Tribune's own — will aid the giver caring for the book lovers in their lives.
But don't forget to look around for local authors, whose latest words can draw readers even further into their immediate literary community. Here are just six of many 2023 books — and one notable 2024 pre-order — that will keep mid-Missourians reading mid-Missourians this holiday season.
The poetry of Walter Bargen
Missouri's first-ever poet laureate, and a Boone County mainstay, Walter Bargen offered two new collections this year. Both "Too Late to Turn Back" and "Radiation Diary: Return to the Sea" deal with the peculiarities of living, dying and existing in some between state with Bargen's signature voice: wise, wry and oddly observant.
Daren Dean, "Roads"
Representing Missouri quite well within a gritty, modern Gothic aesthetic, Dean's latest stands between feuding small-town families to sympathize with, and recoil at, their destructive appetites, inevitable failures and surprising shows of tenderness. Violent and tense yet humane, Dean's work lines up in the company of authors such as Daniel Woodrell and S.A. Cosby.
Sean Frazier, "Mage Breaker"
For those who love embedding within fantastical worlds, local Sean Frazier's latest offers a society that runs on magic — and teases out the implications, real-world or otherwise, of such a construct. "Mage Breaker" digs around our tendency toward unthinking adoption, as well as themes of chosen family and exclusion, while keeping readers entertained and on their toes.
Marlene Lee, "Inner Passage"
A remarkable and somehow understated feat of voice, Lee's new short-story collection convenes a cast of characters who will never truly navigate the world until they see themselves more clearly. Lee writes lyrical and purposeful sentences, couching real insight in dark humor and momentum.
Elizabeth Stamp, "150 Bookstores You Need to Visit Before You Die"
While not written within the 573 area code, you can plan your next vacation around bookstore stops — and celebrate a Columbia gem — with the volume "150 Bookstores You Need to Visit Before You Die." This book not only travels the country, but every continent save Antarctica, and reserves specific praise for Ninth Street's Skylark Bookshop, confirming what Columbia book lovers already know but don't mind hearing again.
Steve Wiegenstein, "Land of Joys"
Meet Steve Wiegenstein in St. Louis. The historical novelist's latest visits the 1904 World's Fair to take in the sights and turn over quiet revelations about how we make "others" of our neighbors and sell ourselves short for the sake of 15 ticks of fame, give or take a minute or two.
Preorder Laura McHugh's "Safe and Sound"
A literary sort of IOU might not immediately satisfy on Christmas morning — but hand your loved one the promise of Laura McHugh's next mystery and that promise will more than deliver.
"Safe and Sound," from the 2023 Missouri Literary Award winner, comes through April 23. McHugh's novels are always tightly wound and soulfully unspooled. Her next page-turner comes alongside two Missouri sisters who propel themselves into unknowable darkness, seeking answers about the disappearance of their beloved older cousin.
Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. He's on Twitter/X @aarikdanielsen.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Give the gifts of these Columbia and Missouri authors this holiday
