Week 5: Cut and Dried

Boxcutters breaks away

The leaders were a razor's edge apart, but Boxcutters ultimately pulled ahead to win Week 5. Congrats to John Chrostek and all the fine folks at Malarkey Books!

Meet the Week 6 Contenders

This week is like a good ol' Saturday down at the state fair. Or, for those more respectable [insert posh British accent here], a rather satisfying outing to the Westminster Dog Show. Four book covers featuring animals are lined up for your infallible judgment. Which one deserves the blue ribbon?

• Audition for the Fox by Martin Cahill (Tachyon Publications, September 16, 2025): A desperate acolyte makes a risky prayer to a trickster god and is thrown back in time to outwit brutal invaders and prove herself worthy of the divine.
• Emotional Support Horse by Claudine Toutoungi (Carcanet Press, December 12, 2024): A poetic journey through grief, eco-stress, and surreal transformation. Flamingos, Vizslas, and wolfhounds accompany a voice both droll and despairing.
• Familial Hungers by Christine Wu (Brick Books, February 28, 2025): These poems stir race, identity, and family into a potent broth of memory and longing, flavored with Chinese school, ginseng tea, and language loss.
• Visions and Temptations by Harald Voetmann (New Directions, July 1, 2025): A dying monk’s nightmarish visions take him on a Dantean path through sorrow and salvation in this grotesque, mesmerizing conclusion to a historical trilogy.

Thanks for voting. You’re turning over some beautiful stones.

Bracket Update

Last week had the best turnout to date, in terms of both quantity and diversity of votes, and a small press reached out to share their forthcoming titles. These signs of growth are fuel in my tank. I believe that the bracket can be a mechanism for good, whether offering wholesome/weird internet fun or helping the little guy reach a wider audience.

Onward, to Week 6, with the natural grace of a winsome beast,

Will Pass
Book Jacket Bracket Guy