Bloomland by John Englehardt (paperback)
Winner of the VCU Cabell First Novel Award
Winner of the 2018 Dzanc Prize for Fiction
An Indies Introduce Pick
A Kirkus Best Books of 2019 selection
Spanning two decades, Bloomland examines the social roots and community fallout of a shooting at a fictional southern university. As the narrative moves between the lives of a disillusioned student, a grieving professor, and the shooter himself, the psyches and stories of each character blend and intersect, ultimately asking us to rethink American myths of selfhood, grief, and violence as a redemptive act.
Profound and deeply nuanced, Bloomland is a dazzling debut that walks in step with the novels of Garth Greenwell, Rachel Kushner, and Louise Erdrich.
Publication Date: August 12, 2025
Paperback: 200 pages
ISBN: 9781938603341
Winner of the VCU Cabell First Novel Award
Winner of the 2018 Dzanc Prize for Fiction
An Indies Introduce Pick
A Kirkus Best Books of 2019 selection
Spanning two decades, Bloomland examines the social roots and community fallout of a shooting at a fictional southern university. As the narrative moves between the lives of a disillusioned student, a grieving professor, and the shooter himself, the psyches and stories of each character blend and intersect, ultimately asking us to rethink American myths of selfhood, grief, and violence as a redemptive act.
Profound and deeply nuanced, Bloomland is a dazzling debut that walks in step with the novels of Garth Greenwell, Rachel Kushner, and Louise Erdrich.
Publication Date: August 12, 2025
Paperback: 200 pages
ISBN: 9781938603341
Winner of the VCU Cabell First Novel Award
Winner of the 2018 Dzanc Prize for Fiction
An Indies Introduce Pick
A Kirkus Best Books of 2019 selection
Spanning two decades, Bloomland examines the social roots and community fallout of a shooting at a fictional southern university. As the narrative moves between the lives of a disillusioned student, a grieving professor, and the shooter himself, the psyches and stories of each character blend and intersect, ultimately asking us to rethink American myths of selfhood, grief, and violence as a redemptive act.
Profound and deeply nuanced, Bloomland is a dazzling debut that walks in step with the novels of Garth Greenwell, Rachel Kushner, and Louise Erdrich.
Publication Date: August 12, 2025
Paperback: 200 pages
ISBN: 9781938603341
PRAISE FOR Bloomland
“Englehardt has been blessed with an unflinching, insightful gaze and a powerful ability to create unusual characters in organic conflicts.” –Book and Film Globe
“Englehardt has crafted a narrative that encourages exploration over explanation, which values understanding over sensationalism, and holds most dear, compassion over judgment.” –Blackbird Journal
“Brilliant and insanely brave…Englehardt has just announced himself as one of America’s most talented emerging writers.” –Kirkus Reviews
“Bloomland juxtaposes the proximate with the predator, intermingling their perspectives until the flickering becomes a bloody tapestry of our beleaguered nation.” –The Washington Post
“A grim depiction of gun culture in the Bible Belt from a poignant and humanist perspective.” –World Literature Today
“A radioactive Faulkner.” –The Seattle Review of Books
“Bloomland is the sobering novel America needs right now” –Debutiful
“In high-quality, almost incantatory literary prose, Englehardt's narrator examines the lives of the killer, the victims, the bereaved, the town, and himself in an attempt to find honest answers to frustratingly routine questions: Why did this shooting happen? Who is responsible? And what happens next?” –The Stranger
“Considering that we’re bombarded daily with footage from ground zero of one act of mass violence after another, I ask, “Do we need a novel about it?” After finishing the last page of John Englehardt’s stark, yet heartbreakingly human novel, Bloomland, the answer is a confident, “Yes, we do.” –The Florida Review
“Englehardt’s debut poses timely, difficult questions.” –Publisher’s Weekly
“In prose that is vivid, specific, and wildly original, Englehardt shows how grief, disillusionment, and — in some cases — resilience can take lives in surprising directions. This is SO good.” —American Booksellers Association
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Englehardt is the author of the novel Bloomland, which won the Dzanc Prize for Fiction, the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and was named a book of the year by Kirkus Reviews and Electric Literature. He has previously taught writing classes at Seattle University, Hugo House, University of Arkansas, and was a visiting professor at Pacific Lutheran University. He lived in Seattle for many years and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
