- HONORÉE FANONNE JEFFERS
Book: The Love Songs of W.E.B Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
Delivering a weighty debut with The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers has excited critics on both sides of the pond. Released in the US last year, The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois was one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2021. Described by Oprah Winfrey as a ‘masterful epic’, it’s an Oprah Book Club pick and New York Times bestseller.
An award-winning poet, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers has written five collections of poetry and contributed to many literary magazines. She’s also a professor of English, teaching creative writing and literature at the University of Oklahoma.
Researching and writing The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois took 11 years, with Honoree frequently writing in the early morning–initially in longhand.
When the novel was released in the States last year, Honorée was longlisted, shortlisted and a finalist for prestigious fiction prizes and is in the running for a fiction award from the National Book Critics Circle. It was released in the UK just two weeks ago, so we reckon you’ll be hearing a lot more about this author in 2022.
2. JANICE HALLETT
Book: The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett
Tipped as a modern-day Agatha Christie, Janice Hallett wowed us with The Appeal, one of the best fiction books of last year. Now she’s back with another cosy crime—The Twyford Code— and it’s got the book world all excited. She has a deal for two more novels and is already writing her third book for 2023.
With two journalism awards under her belt, this former magazine editor’s CV reads like a smorgasbord of writing. From writing articles and speeches for the Cabinet Office and Home Office, she turned to theatrical comedy, TV/film scripts and crime books. She co-wrote the 2011 horror-thriller Retreat, starring Cillian Murphy, and has penned many other scripts. Her supernatural thriller, Divine, won Best New Screenplay in the 2014 British Independent Film Festival.
Crime-thriller The Appeal catapulted her into bestseller status in 2021, so it’s no wonder the book world is keeping an eye on her work in 2022. Written in epistolary form and drawing on her passion for am-dram, it was a Sunday Times bestseller and a Waterstones Thriller of the Month. The TV/film rights have also been optioned and Janice has already delivered a pilot.
3. DIANE CHAMBERLAIN
Book: The Last House On The Street by Diane Chamberlain
Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author Diane Chamberlain is a master storyteller with an ardent fan base. She’s not a debut author, but is well known for writing suspenseful novels with heart. And her latest, The Last House On The Street, is a mystery focused on a town divided by prejudice, and was hotly anticipated for 2022. The paperback was released on 20 January 2022, and you can get the hardback in July.
Formerly a social worker and psychotherapist, she excels at charting emotional relationships while building suspense. Despite being a prolific writer—28 novels to date—Diane admits she’s full of doubt each time she begins a new one.
She draws inspiration from myriad sources; reading newspapers, studying history, and overhearing conversations between strangers. The Last House on the Street is incredibly topical, and grew out of an interest in the ongoing fight for civil rights in the United States—we predict it’ll be one of the best thriller books of the year.
