Priyanka Champaneri received her MFA in creative writing from George Mason University and has been a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts numerous times. She received the 2018 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing for
The City of Good Death, her first novel.
At Electric Lit, Champaneri tagged "nine books to quell your appetite for a good gossip." One title on the list:
The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
After a storm kills all the men on a Norwegian island in 1617, the women left behind have only themselves to rely on. While they 
grieve, some get to work manning the fishing boats, others take care of storing winter provisions—and a handful decide to busy their tongues with whispers that quickly ignite into something uglier. Taking inspiration from a real-life storm that preceded the 1620 witch trials, this book is a dark and brooding exploration into how women can shift roles, form bonds, and light the match that sets the whole thing ablaze. Gossip takes a dark and sinister turn, as one character observes:
“But now she knows she was foolish to believe that evil existed only out there. It was here, among them, walking on two legs, passing judgement with a human tongue.”
Read about
the other entries on the list.
--Marshal Zeringue
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