David K. Randall, author of the Fall 2012 pick Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep, discusses his inspiration for writing the book, what scientists are just now learning about sleep, and how dreaming fits into the science of sleep, among other things with Discover Great New Writers.

Vaddey Ratner, author of the Fall 2012 selection In the Shadow of  the Banyan, discusses why she chose fiction over memoir to tell her family's story and her incredibly broad range of literary influences, among other things with Discover Great New Writers.

Katie Kitamura, author of Gone to the Forest and the '09 Discover pick The Longshot recommends 3 great reads.

Maria Semple, the author of the superbly witty & equally wise Fall 2012 Discover pick Where'd You Go, Bernadette? discusses the undeniable appeal of reading other people's mail, the differences between writing a novel and writing for TV, recognizing glimmers of comedy in her own misery, and a writer "whose sentences are so beautiful it almost hurts  to read them" with Discover Great New Writers.

M.L. Stedman, the author of The Light Between Oceans, our newest B&N Recommends selection, ponders the kindness of strangers - "that miraculous social fabric that springs into being to form safety nets and shelters and shields, without duty, or promise of reward" - in the real world and in her fictional one, and asks if we are all kind-strangers-in-waiting in this original essay.

The press for Brian Castner's harrowing memoir The Long Walk Home has been nothing short of terrific; but this is one of those times when it's best to let a book speak for itself, so here's a bit from the chapter called "The Science and The Chakras."

Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, discusses writing about the things she believes in, ordinary people, and the search for something bigger in life, among other things, with Discover Great New Writers.

M. L. Stedman, the author of our next B&N Recommends selection, The Light Between Oceans (on sale 7/31/12), discusses the romance and metaphor of lighthouses, impossible choices, and cultivating compassion with Tess Taylor.

"Tiny Beautiful Things can really be read as a companion to Strayed's extraordinary book Wild." -- The San Francisco Chronicle

Carol Rifka Brunt, author of Tell The Wolves I'm Home, talks about finding inspiration and her characters' voices, and wanting to be the kind of person who writes in coffee shops, among other things, with Discover Great New Writers.

Ben Fountain, author of Brief Encounters with Che Guevara and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, and Alan Heathcock, author of Volt, discuss provocative and "political" writing, the desire for accuracy, and the compulsion to tell stories, among other things, here on the Discover blog.

Uzodinma Iweala impressed readers and critics alike with his stunning debut, Beasts of No Nation. His new book, a nonfiction examination of the AIDS crisis in Nigeria called Our Kind of People: A Continent's Challenge, A Country's Hope is out now, and he talks about the difference between writing fiction and nonfiction with Discover Great New Writers

"I will let my sons read it, but not until they are much older. I don't know exactly when. But my motivation for writing the book, before I had an agent or publisher or let myself consider such wide distribution, was always to write the book for them, and if I never sold a single copy, I told myself I'd print one out and put it on the shelf and save it for them for later, to be able to point to it and share it and say, "This is why Dad is the way he is, and acted like he did when you were younger."

Anna Keesey, author of Little Century -- the novel Joshua Ferris so aptly calls "an epic of many small pleasures" --  talks about period research, Oregon's high desert, the uglier side of American enterprise, and who she's been reading lately -- among other things -- with Discover Great New Writers.

Karen Thompson Walker, author of Summer '12 Discover pick The Age of Miracles talks about choosing her book's title, "the hidden pleasure of apocalyptic stories," and Charlotte Rogan's debut novel, The Lifeboat, also a Summer '12 Discover pick.

More accolades for Maggie Shipstead's firecracker of a debut, Seating Arrangements, a perfect beach read and the newest B&N Recommends selection.

The Discover selection committee members aren't the only readers to have embraced Kristen Iversen's Full Body Burden, a powerful hybrid of memoir and well-documented investigative journalism. She shares other readers' responses to her terrific -- though sometimes horrifying -- narrative, here.

"I love Robert Goolrick's Heading Out to Wonderful. The novel's seductive power and the beauty of his writing create a delicious feast for the reader," says Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help, a Spring 2009 Discover Great New Writers selection.

Benjamin Wood, author of Summer 2012 Discover Great New Writers selection The Bellwether Revivals talks to us about the consolation of music, the conflict between faith and doubt, and how all of his characters are outsiders.

Karen Thompson Walker’s astonishing debut, The Age of Miracles, is a perfect example of what the Discover Great New Writers program looks for in a coming-of-age novel, and a review in The New York Times reiterates our selection committee's enthusiastic response to the voice of the book's narrator, 11-year-old Julia.

Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with Amber Eyes, a Fall 2010 Discover Great New Writers selection, talks about connecting with readers, Proust, and the "odd correspondence between inheriting a story and inheriting an object."

Alison Espach, author of The Adults, a Spring 2011 Discover selection recommends 3 great reads.

"I was collecting names even before I decided to write the book. One treasure trove was a plaque I came across at an old resort in Rhode Island that listed the winners of summer lawn bowling tournaments from the 1950s until now." That's Maggie Shipstead on how she came up with the wonderfully preppy characters that pop up in her madcap comedy of manners, Seating Arrangements, the newest B&N Recommends selection. In an exclusive interview, Maggie talks to Tess Taylor about translating WASPs, literary influences from Cheever and Updike to Perotta and Eugenides. And then there are the exploding whales...

Notes on upcoming articles here on the Discover blog...

Critics weigh in Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, the new novel from Mohammed Hanif, author of the Summer ’08 Discover pick, A Case of Exploding Mangoes

Reflecting on Ben Okri's luminous novel, The Famished Road, a 1991 Discover pick and an inspiration for several recent Discover authors.

Full Body Burden: The amount of radioactive material present in a human body that acts as an internal and ongoing source of radiation. Read our Q&A with Kristen Iversen, author of the Summer 2012 Discover Great New Writers pick Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats, here.

Alethea Black, the author of the stellar story collection I Knew You'd Be Lovely -- one of Discover's big hits from last year -- recommends three great reads.

After reading the first few chapters of her great-grandmother's cookbook, At Home on the Range, it’s pretty clear to me that writing’s imprinted on Elizabeth Gilbert’s DNA.

Just some of the exciting things that critics are saying about our Summer 2012 Discover Great New Writers selections.