The Class of 2021 is wrapping up our incredible, historic year, and we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve selected the new Debutante Ball Class of 2022! These debut authors and their books represent a variety of categories and genres, and most importantly, authors with clear, smart voices that will resonate with the Debutante Ball’s readers. Because publishing has changed so much since 2007 and social media is more important than ever, we have decided to expand the Class of 2022 to seven Debs, to help carry the workload.
Please welcome these fabulous writers and their equally fabulous books! We know the 2022 class will continue the Deb traditions in fine form, and we look forward to following their journeys over the next year.
The new class will take over the Ball on Wednesday, September 1st.
SARAH GRUNDER RUIZ, Love, Lists, and Fancy Ships, Berkley, 11/23/21
Sarah Grunder Ruiz is a writer, educator, and karaoke enthusiast. Originally from South Florida, she now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband and two children. She holds an MFA in creative writing from North Carolina State University, where she now teaches First-Year Writing.
Her debut novel, LOVE, LISTS, AND FANCY SHIPS will be out on November, 23rd, 2021
FLORA COLLINS, Nanny Dearest, Mira, 11/30/21
Flora Collins was born and raised in New York City and has never left, except for a four-year stint at Vassar College. When she’s not writing, she can be found watching reality shows that were canceled after one season or attempting to eat soft-serve ice cream in bed (sometimes simultaneously).
Nanny Dearest is her first novel, and draws upon personal experiences from her own family history.
JENNIFER FAWCETT, Beneath the Stairs, Atria, 2/22/22
Jennifer Fawcett grew up in rural Eastern Ontario and spent many years in Canada making theatre before coming to the United States. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. Her work has been produced in theaters across the country and published in Third Coast Magazine, Reunion: The Dallas Review, Storybrink, and in the anthology Long Story Short.
She teaches writing at Skidmore College and lives in upstate New York with her husband and son.
MELISSA CHADBURN, A Tiny Upward Shove, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 4/12/22
Melissa Chadburn’s writing has appeared in The LA Times, NYT Book Review, NYRB, Longreads, Paris Review online, and dozens other places. Her essay on food insecurity was published in Best American Food Writing 2019. She’s done extensive reporting on the child welfare system and appears in the Netflix docuseries The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez.
Her debut novel, A Tiny Upward Shove, is forthcoming with Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. She is a Ph.D. candidate at USC’s Creative Writing Program. Melissa is a worker lover and through her own work and literary citizenship strives to upend economic violence. Her mother taught her how to sharpen a pencil with a knife and she’s basically been doing that ever since.
SONYA SINGH, Sari, Not Sari, Simon & Schuster, 4/30/22
Her debut novel Sari, Not Sari, is slated for a spring release in ’22. She also signed an international two-book deal.
Sonya wrote Sari, Not Sari, to laugh her way through some of her more disastrous breakups.
In her spare time, you can find Sonya sipping on a matcha latte, enjoying a homemade pizza, or hanging out with her adorable dog, Moses Alexander.
CAROLYN HUYNH, The Fortunes of Jaded Women, Atria, 5/1/22
Carolyn Huynh grew up in Orange County, California, not appreciating the weather enough. She has a B.A. in journalism from Seattle University and a M.S. in human centered design from the University of Washington. The youngest daughter of Vietnamese refugees, her writing focuses on her mother’s tall-tales, superstitions, the diaspora, and memory (both real and imaginary). She especially loves writing about messy Asian women who never learn from their mistakes. After living up and down the west coast, she now resides in Los Angeles with her dog. She still doesn’t appreciate the weather enough. When she’s not writing, Carolyn daydreams about having iced coffee on a rooftop in Saigon.
CLEYVIS NATERA, Neruda on the Park, Ballantine Books, 5/17/22
Cleyvis Naterawas born in the Dominican Republic, migrated to the U.S. at ten years old, and grew up in New York City. She holds a BA from Skidmore College and an MFA from New York University. Her writing has won awards and fellowships from PEN America, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Kenyon Review’s Summer Writers Workshops, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She teaches Creative Writing in New York City. She lives with her husband and two young children in Montclair, New Jersey.
Neruda on the Park, forthcoming from Ballantine Books in Spring 2022, is her first novel.
