Features
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THE ADVOCATE: The 2025 Ernest J. Gaines Award winner ‘talks across time’ in her debut novel
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B&N: Swift River by Essie Chambers is Our 2024 Discover Prize Winner
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VERSE & VINO Spotlight: Essie Chambers
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Irish Independent: Essie Chambers’s Swift River expertly presents a multifaceted Diamond in the rough in New England
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Microsoft Start: 5 books to read after ‘Swift River,’ according to author Essie Chambers
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The Rumpus: Life is Tragicomic — A Conversation with Essie Chambers
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TODAY: Essie Chambers recommends 5 books to read after ‘Swift River’
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Washington Post Review: ‘Swift River,’ a sparkling debut about a young girl you’ll never forget
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Los Angeles Sentinel: Essie Chambers Debuts Captivating Novel, ‘Swift River’
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The Nation — A New Novel Explores How to Develop Black Identity in the Absence of Black Culture
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Boston Globe: For her debut novel, ‘Swift River,’ Essie Chambers drew on growing up biracial in Greenfield
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Maximum Shelf author interview: Essie Chambers
Following Monday’s review of Swift River, here’s Essie Chambers: One More River to Cross. Swift River (Simon & Schuster, June 4, 2024), is a complex, place-centered coming-of-age reckoning with race and class.
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Shelf Awareness: Swift River’s Essie Chambers: One More River to Cross
Swift River tackles an impressively broad range of issues, including race, class, and body image, within the coming-of-age of Diamond Newberry. Essie Chambers’s first novel, building upon her work in film and television (Descendant, 2022), is set in the decaying New England mill town of Swift River, with meditations on place and the effect of a