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Balint, Benjamin. Bruno Schulz: An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History. Norton. Apr. 2023. 288p. ISBN 9780393866575. $30. BIOGRAPHY/FINE ARTS

Bellamy, Bill. Top Billin’: Stories of Laughter, Lessons, and Triumph. Amistad: Harper Collins. Apr. 2023. 240p. ISBN 9780063237629. $27.99. MEMOIR

Dederer, Claire. Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma. Knopf. Apr. 2023. 288p. ISBN 9780525655114. $28. LITERARY CRITICISM

Dern, Laura & Diane Ladd. Honey, Baby, Mine. Grand Central. Apr. 2023. 272p. ISBN 9781538720370. $30. lrg. prnt. CD. MEMOIR/PERFORMING ARTS

Durkee, Lee. Stalking Shakespeare: A Memoir of Madness, Murder, and My Search for the Poet Beneath the Paint. Scribner. Apr. 2023. 288p. ISBN 9781982127145. $28. CD. MEMOIR/LITERARY

Greenfield, Robert. True West: Sam Shepard’s Life, Work, and Times. Crown. Apr. 2023. 464p. ISBN 9780525575955. $30. Downloadable. BIOGRAPHY/PERFORMING ARTS

Jowitt, Deborah. Errand into the Maze: The Life and Works of Martha Graham. Farrar. Apr. 2023. 480p. ISBN 9780374280628. $35. BIOGRAPHY/DANCE

Schoenberger, Nancy. Blanche: The Life and Times of Tennessee Williams’s Greatest Creation. Harper. Apr. 2023. 240p. ISBN 9780062947178. $28.99. LITERARY CRITICISM

Spiegelman, Willard. Nothing Stays Put: The Life and Poetry of Amy Clampitt. Knopf. Feb. 2023. 432p. ISBN 9780525658269. $35. BIOGRAPHY/LITERATURE

With Bruno Schulz, the Sami Rohr Prize–winning Balint revisits the celebrated Polish Jewish author/artist, focusing on the rediscovery of murals Schulz was compelled to paint at an SS villa and the question raised when they were smuggled to Jerusalem: who can claim the legacy of those, like Schulz, who perished in the Holocaust? Actor, stand-up comedian, and significant MTV player since its inception, Bellamy talks about quitting his corporate job and smashing race and class barriers as he rose to Top Billin’ in the entertainment industry (100,000-copy first printing). An expansion of New York Times best-selling memoirist Dederer’s viral Paris Review essay, "What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?" Monsters considers whether genius gives male artists from Polanski to Picasso the license for malicious behavior and whether male and female monstrosity are the same (35,000-copy first printing). With Honey, Baby, Mine, celebrated actress Dern and her equally celebrated mother Ladd share intimate conversations they’ve had, sparked by Ladd’s illness (500,000-copy first printing). After his divorce, Mississippi novelist Durkee sneaked off to a fishing shack in Vermont and started Stalking Shakespeare, facing down know-it-all curators as he looked for a portrait of the Bard that could verifiably be shown to have been painted from life. A novelist, playwright, and biographer of Jerry Garcia and Timothy Leary, Greenfield takes a long look at multi-Obie-winning playwright, actor, and director Sam Shepard in True West (40,000-copy first printing). An esteemed dance critic who wrote for the Village Voice for over four decades, Jowitt limns the life and works of groundbreaking modern dance choreographer Martha Graham in the smartly named Errand into the Maze; it’s the title of one of Graham’s best-known pieces (20,000-copy first printing). Prize-winning poet Schoenberger, also author of Dangerous Muse: The Life of Lady Caroline Blackwood, does a deep dive into the character of Tennessee Williams’s iconic Blanche from A Streetcar Named Desire (40,000-copy first printing). In Nothing Stays Put, Wall Street Journal contributor Spiegelman unearths the life of Amy Clampitt, a celebrated poet (and personal favorite) who published her first of five acclaimed collections when she was 63 and went on to win a MacArthur fellowship.

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