It is officially fall. Along with a rush of pumpkin-spice flavored products comes an impressive new slew of books. Of course, there are many novels and collections we are excited about this fall (including a ton of promising debuts), but here are seven of them.

Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down by Anne Valente

Fans of Anne Valente’s work have been anxiously awaiting her debut novel, out in October. Let us tell you: you will not be disappointed. Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down is a powerful book that chronicles the aftermath of a school shooting in a St. Louis suburb, as the houses of the victims’ families mysteriously begin to burn down one by one. Told in the first person plural, this novel does not shy away from its weighty content. An important book for our times.

Publication date: October 4

The Mortifications by Derek Palacio

October brings many promising debuts, The Mortifications by Derek Palacio among them. Palacio’s novel, out from Tim Duggan Books, begins in Cuba in 1980, during the Mariel boatlift, when a woman, Soledad, decides to go to America with her two children—leaving her husband behind. A highly anticipated book from a talented new voice.

Publication date: October 4

Him, Me, Muhammad Ali by Randa Jarrar

The first short story collection from acclaimed novelist Randa Jarrar comes out from Sarabande soon. In the words of the publisher: “Bouncing between Cairo, New York, Palestine, Sydney, and Istanbul, these stories explore the worlds of ‘accidental transients’ or displaced people.” The characters in this book include: an Egyptian feminist and her friend, an emerging writer; the women of a matriarchal society; and a woman who is part ibex.

Publication date: October 11

The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa

Correa’s first novel, based on a true story, chronicles the experience of twelve-year-old Hannah Rosenthal as she attempts to escape from Nazi-occupied Germany. This one is not to be missed.

Publication date: October 18

We Show What We Have Learned & Other Stories by Clare Beams

We love Lookout Books, and we love a good debut collection. These two come together in We Show What We have Learned & Other Stories by Clare Beams. Joyce Carol Oates calls it: “A dazzling story collection—as if, by a rare sort of magic, Alice Munro and Shirley Jackson had conspired together to imagine a female/feminist voice for the twenty-first century that is wickedly sharp-eyed, wholly unpredictable, and wholly engaging.” High praise, indeed.

Publication date: October 25

Pull Me Under by Kelly Luce

Pull Me Under, Kelly Luce’s first novel, comes out from FSG this fall. Laura van den Berg says of the book: “Pull Me Under is a fierce and suspenseful exploration of the profoundly mysterious nature of identity, written with precise and spectacular beauty. Kelly Luce is one of our most thrilling new talents.” Red the Publisher’s Weekly blurb here.

Publication date: November 1

Swing Time by Zadie Smith

Get excited for another novel from the wonderful Zadie Smith, out from Penguin Press just before the holidays. Kirkus says of the book: “Smith, who wowed the world at 24 with her debut novel, White Teeth (2000), once again crafts quicksilver fiction around intense friendship, race, and class.”

Publication date: November 15

by Sadye Teiser

Following the popularity of our summer workshop, we are proud to announce that The Masters Review will be offering online workshops on an ongoing basis. We will be hosting a new instructor each season for a three-month term, and we are honored to have Anne Valente as our instructor from March through May. The workshops aim to connect emerging writers with experts in the field. The program allows students to work with our instructor remotely and strives to give participants a workshop experience that can easily fit into their lives. Registration for the workshop opens on March 1, and enrollment is limited, so mark your calendars! More information here.

“I just want to thank you again for the generous feedback you gave me during The Masters Review Summer Workshop… I know it takes a lot of time to read a manuscript with such care and attention, and I really appreciate your investment in my work.” –Kate, Summer Workshop Writer, 2014

Anne Valente is the author of the short story collection, By Light We Knew Our Names, which won the Dzanc Books Short Story Prize and released in September 2014. She is also the author of the fiction chapbook, An Elegy for Mathematics. Her fiction appears in One Story, Ninth Letter, The Normal School and Hayden’s Ferry Review, among others, and her essays appear in The Believer and The Washington Post. Her work won the 2012 Copper Nickel Fiction Prize and was listed as notable in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011.

Anne’s Workshop Statement: As a writer and an instructor, I firmly believe in curiosity, experimentation and failure. By failure, I don’t mean a lack of trying or poorly formed stories. I mean the freedom to try a story idea—or point of view or plot or structure—that may ultimately fail its first execution but allows the writer to experiment with craft, and provides the writer ample room for the process of editing and revision. For me, writing is trying new things and pushing my own boundaries, even if I don’t get it quite right on the first try. Revision is half the fun of writing, in going back and ripping up scenes and moving things around and playing with the sound of language. As a writer and an instructor, I believe that writing is a process, and one full of possibilities.

For more details about The Masters Review Online Workshop, visit this page.