Praise for In This Ravishing World
“In this ravishing book, you will find stories that lift your heart and stories that break it. Powerfully beautiful and beautifully powerful, Schuyler has written exactly the book this moment needs.” Karen Joy Fowler, BOOTH, New York Times bestselling author.
“A brilliantly conceived and eloquent new linked story collection.”–Jane Ciabattari, Lithub, July 2, 2024
“I’m blown away by this book! There is nothing–nothing–quite like it in the literary world right now.”–Susanne Pari, author of In the Time of Our History
“A really wonderful collection of new stories.”–Anne Harper, KALW Radio, Best of the Bay
“Schuyler offers a Chekhovian depiction of the complications of family life, intersecting with, but not confined to, ideology.”–Paul Wilner, Nob Hill Gazette
“Richard Powers’s The Overstory meets Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future in Nina Schuyler’s IN THIS RAVISHING WORLD – a riveting read that grabs the heart and won’t let go.“–Carole Stivers, author, The Mother Code
“A lovely collection.” —Atlas Journal
“Engrossing and elegantly linked.”—San Francisco Chronicle
Winner of the W.S. Porter Prize for Short Story Collections and the Prism Prize for Climate Literature
From the Judge of the Prism Prize for Climate Literature:
“Three pages into reading this fascinating book, I knew it was the clear winner of the third annual Prism Prize for Climate Literature that I sponsor through Homebound Publications. Not only does it cover every facet of the climate issue and the ongoing efforts at dealing with or denying/undermining what needs to be done, Nature’s presence embraces the entire narrative and lends a sense of enchantment. Rivetted, I could barely put it down for the three days it took to read the compelling stories of a diverse cast of characters: there is someone in these pages for every reader to relate to. Hooked by the older woman in the opening pages who was exhausted and discouraged after years of climate effort, and eagerly following her through to the final pages’ plausible outcome, I applaud and admire Nina’s skill at creating characters and plot that pull readers into climate awareness, while simultaneously acknowledging those of us who have tried to move the needle through non-fiction offerings. This book made me laugh and cry, and gave me a ray of hope.” —Gail Collins-Ranadive, author of Dinosaur Dreaming, Our Climate Moment.
“With astonishing dexterity and deep empathy, Schuyler takes the readers on a capacious journey with people from all walks of life: environmentalists, families, children, dancers, workers, hackers, and many more. Her spellbinding prose and unflinching vision overwhelm me with contrition for our prodigal past, trepidation for our fraught present, and hope for our perilous future on Mother Earth.” –Yang Huang, author of My Good Son and My Old Faithful
“In This Ravishing World captures varied responses to impending environmental catastrophe: denial, depression, anger, panic. Radicals, computer nerds, artists, disenfranchised youth, environmentalists, and the top .01 percent are all brought together in a collection of linked stories that become one magnificent story of hope and despair, love and fear, and the ongoing quest for personal and planetary survival. Both scientifically accurate and emotionally compelling, this book is necessary, timely, and wise.” —Lucille Lang Day, author of Birds of San Pancho and Other Poems of Place and coeditor of Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California
“To enact change successfully, any social movement, including conservation, needs people in many different roles working in different ways toward the same goal. Nina’s storytelling weaves a beautiful tapestry of the many different ways individuals can make a difference in conservation by tapping into their unique talents, experiences, and passions. She shows the heart and hope that optimistic youth bring to those who have been in this fight for a long time. The underlying flavor of this story is the vast expanse of the history of life on Earth, which provides humility, insight, and perspective. But stay off the bridge.” —Aviva Rossi, PhD, Ecology
Praise for Afterword
***Winner of the 2024 PenCraft Book Award for Fiction
***Winner of the PenCraft Seasonal Book Award for Fiction-Science Fiction for Remarkable Literary Quality and Artistic Excellence.
**Top Notable 100 Book 2023 Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Competition
***2023 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year for Science Fiction
***2023 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year for Literary
**Finalist for the 2023 Best Book Award in the category of General Fiction. — American Book Fest
“AFTERWORD offers up every literary treat imaginable: a wildly inventive plot that keeps you turning pages, characters who steal your heart, big ideas that engage your mind, and gorgeous prose that delights your senses. I’m a big fan of Nina Schuyler and this is her best book yet!” — Ellen Sussman, New York Times bestselling author
“Her riveting “Afterword,” a prescient yet eloquent third novel that’s as topical as tomorrow’s headlines. The literary page-turner prophetically taps into ethical and moral quandaries surging to the fore over the deployment and potential abuse of artificial intelligence.” — Mercury News, September 12, 2023
“Schuyler truly pulls readers into a suspenseful and timely story, one that explores the dangers and unpredictability of advancing technology while also detailing a beautiful story of love, war, and sacrifice. It’s a novel that makes readers think deeply about the benefits versus consequences of using AI technology to attempt replicating human beings.” — BookTrib
“Afterword offers a novel take on our assumptions towards the power of the AI generation, where it seems we assume the worst before we reach a point where everything can be clear.” — Full Stop, by Kris Van der Bijl
#1 pick for May! ” The author’s brilliant attention to detail creates a compelling world in which her inventive plot unfolds.” — Alta Journal
“Nina’s prose is near perfect, the story profound and compelling, raising the timely question: will A.I. actually force us to be more in touch with our humanity? Nina Schuyler’s writing is as brilliant as her protagonist, Virginia.” — Holly Lynn Payne, Page One Podcast
“The novel is an incredible intrspective work that makes us ponder the ethics and humanity that AI can display as they only become more advanced and capable of learning.” — Alex Carrigan, Heavy Feather Review
A June Favorite — Towne Center Books
“Schuyler’s book surprised me in a way so many stories grappling with technology don’t. What sets Schuyler’s novel apart from other books in the genre was that it never distilled the relationship between humans and machines into a single moral suggestion.” — Shelby Hinte, Write or Die Magazine
“There are so many textures and layers of mystery in this compelling and fierce novel–from identity to memory, from the authentic to the false. But the most crushing and heartening of these is the absolute mystery of human love. My heart was broken reading it, and my heart was put together again, in new ways. ” — Lewis Buzbee, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop
“This beautiful book is so many things, an intimate love story and a powerful study on grief, a gripping mystery that examines the limits and possibilities of technology, and within that a deeper mystery, the ultimate black box problem: what it is to love—and truly know—someone.” — Katie M. Flynn, The Companions
“AFTERWORD is so propulsive and mysterious I found myself speeding up, but at the same time so patient and well-observed, I had to slow down. Take a sentence like this: ‘An old woman, with a hunched back and a white cardigan sweater buttoned all the way up, is standing in front of the rows of yogurt, muttering something about vanilla.’ You see what I mean? Nina Schuyler has an outstanding sense of story. You fall into this novel and you stay there.” — Peter Orner, Still No Word From You: Notes in the Margin
Nina Schuyler’s novel AFTERWORD is riveting – I could not put it down. Suspenseful, poetic and deeply moving, the novel explores humanity and artificial intelligence and what it means to love someone. I was immediately drawn to the lives of Haru and Virginia, their separate and shared histories. With a surgeon’s precision, Ms. Schuyler has written another exemplary story. — Devi S. Laskar, The Atlas of Reds and Blues and Circa
A haunting portrait of grief, Nina Schuyler’s “Afterword” is a must-read for those who love dystopian, science fiction, complex plotlines with an emotional core. — Anthro Magazine
“AFTERWORD is complex and elegant…. This is a love story and a horror story, a mystery and a morality play. But above all, it is just so damn beautiful. The whole book feels gently haunted. Nina Schuyler’s blend of literary intricacy and speculative fiction makes this read perfect for fans of Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel or The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki.” — bookchew
“Schuyler makes palpable the love between Haru and Virginia, which informs Virginia’s conflicted desire to keep his memory alive and leads to many clever insights (“The definition of human should include the word ‘flaw’ in it”). This will move readers.” — Publishers Weekly
Praise for The Translator
Winner of the Next Generation Indie Book Award for General Fiction
Finalist for the William Saroyan International Writing Prize
“Evocative, powerful, and well-paced, Schuyler’s novel illuminates how interpreting a person is as complicated an art as translating a book because of the risk of reading what one wants to discover rather than what one needs to learn.” — Booklist (starred review)
“An elegant, poetic meditation on the art of translation, ultimately reflecting the search for compassionate meaning in the world.” — Shelf Awareness (starred review)
“…moving and intelligent.” — Sylvia Brownrigg, San Francisco Chronicle
“What stands out in Nina Schuyler’s complex and absorbing novel is her ability to craft descriptive and emotionally engaging language with respect to her characters and how she deftly weaves her storyline. A solid, compelling novel from beginning to end, The Translator is truly exceptional and highly recommended for both personal reading lists and community library fiction collections.” — Midwest Book Review
“Relatable, beautiful, and honest, The Translator is as heartbreaking as it is redemptive, written by an author with a firm grasp on both the interior and exterior lives of her characters. Schuyler’s writing is like the calm before the storm — quiet, but packed with power, the perfect stage for a novel that explores the differences between truly reading our loved ones’ stories and merely translating them into a language we can more readily comprehend.” — Bookslut
“In Nina Schuyler’s brilliant new novel, The Translator, we follow the fascinating story of a translator who has lost the ability to speak her native tongue. We journey with Hanna to Japan, where she tries to unravel the mysteries of the mind and of the heart. Schuyler writes with piercing intelligence and real insight into the complex worlds of literary translation and human relationships.” — Ellen Sussman, author of the New York Times bestselling novel, French Lessons, and the novel, The Paradise Guest House
An “Elaine’s Pick” — a favorite new book selected by Elaine Petrocelli, President of Book Passage, a bookstore in Corte Madera, California
Praise for The Painting
Finalist for the Northern California Book Award
Best Books of 2004 The Painting by Nina Schuyler (Algonquin Books; 299 pages; $23.95): “According to the tenets of Buddhism, life is suffering, and suffering arises inexorably from desire, from the act of wanting. In Nina Schuyler’s meditative first novel, The Painting, the interplay between want and need not only creates the thematic backbone of the book but also drives the story itself — the tale of the struggles of a young female painter living in Meiji-era Japan, and the life of the illegitimate daughter of a well-heeled Parisian during the Franco-Prussian War. Each of her characters is afflicted with his or her own particular form of suffering, and each, in turn, is likewise afflicted with the hope of bringing that suffering to an end.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“Nina Schuyler makes a fearless debut with The Painting. Not only does Schuyler take on characters in 1869 Japan, she creates a parallel story of characters in 1870 France. And what’s more, each of the separate stories is equally compelling.” — MSNBC
“First and foremost: This is one of the best books I’ve read this year.” — Rocky Mountain News
Praise for How to Write Stunning Sentences
“Nina Schuyler’s How to Write Stunning Sentences is like a Kama Sutra for sentences: it describes the positions and passions of her artful love, and through sharp analyses and generous prompts suggests how you too, writer, may become such an artful lover… Read it and the pleasure will be yours.” — Aaron Shurin, author of King of Shadows and The Skin of Meaning
“Passionately intense and exquisitely precise, Nina Schuyler’s brilliant readings of gorgeously disparate sentences by a wide spectrum of innovative writers illuminate the subversive pleasures of suspension and subordination, the joys of complexity and extravagance, and the potent, piercing delights of language distilled to spare perfection.” — Melanie Rae Thon, author of Voice of the River, Silence & Song, and The 7th Man
Praise for Stunning Sentences: The Creative Writing Journal, with 80 Prompts from Beloved Authors to Improve Your Style
“Nina Schuyler’s book is a creative antidote for anyone experiencing stuckedness, malaise, bad news, the doldrums. And just as useful for those who aren’t feeling stuck but just want fresh, new ways to charge their writing. In her book you’ll find a host of stunning sentences and prompts for she’s a finder, she knows how to find the stunners, then shows you through specific examples how to bring forth your own great lines.” — Toni Mirosevich, author of Spell Heaven
“Stunning Sentences is simply wonderful. There are eighty magical prompts that author Nina Schuyler has carefully curated, providing writers a wide range of tips and techniques to try out. This workbook is a roadmap to hone skills and will give writers tools to effectively inject imagery and rhythm in their own work.” — Devi S. Laskar, author of Circa and The Atlas of Reds and Blues
