Brand-new work by great writers. That's the promise of Hugo House's literary series, which kicks off this year with readings on the theme of "divisions, boundaries, and other rifts" from novelist Jayne Anne Phillips, graphic memoirist Mira Jacob, and magic realist Ruth Joffre. Phillips has been winning awards for her fiction, which often focuses on working-class characters in poor health, since 1979's Black Tickets. Critics loved Jacob's Good Talk, a thoughtful and poignant graphic novel about race and family within an interracial family. And Publisher's Weekly called Joffre's Night Beast "a cri de coeur for sympathy and understanding." The three featured writers have already written extensively on the subject in their own ways, so it'll be interesting to see where they go with the prompt. I'll cross my fingers in hopes of hearing a story about the divisiveness of people shouting the word "division" all the time. by Rich Smith