*Critically acclaimed sophomore author with strong connections throughout the literary fiction community *Author has been awarded the Calvino Prize, the Starcherone Fiction Prize, an Arts and Sciences Creative Project Grant from Syracuse University, the Jeremy Lake Memorial Fiction Prize, a residency from the Millay Colony for the Fine Arts, and the Barbara Banks Brodsky Prize in Creative Writing from Brown University *Mass galley mailing *Reviews, features and interview push to trade publications and national media *Special promotional push to local publications and those where the author has connections, including Brown Alumni Monthly, Syracuse Alumni Magazine, The Wellesley Townsman, The Boston Globe, The Providence Journal, The Denver Post, the Denverite, Westword, The Boulder Daily Camera *University outreach with a focus on course adoption *Local indie bookstore outreach *Events and readings at Boswell Books and through the Syracuse University Living Writers program *Blurb outreach to George Saunders, Brian Evenson, Carole Maso, Rikki Ducornet, Laird Hunt, Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, Alissa Nutting, Stacey Levine, Aimee Parkison, Adam Levin, and others *E-galleys available on Edelweiss *Extensive award submission *Co-op budget available

Winner of the Dzanc Prize for Fiction A work of brilliant and innovative historical fiction, Asylum delves into the disturbing and seductive relationship between a young hysteric named Augustine and renowned nineteenth-century French neurologist J.M. Charcot. As Charcot risks his career to investigate the controversial disease of hysteria, Augustine struggles to make him acknowledge their interdependence and shared desires—until a new lover, M., drives them all to the brink of fracture. Drawing upon the medical photography, hypnotic states, and “grand demonstrations” that accompanied Charcot’s research, Asylum traces the deterioration of the dynamic between doctor and patient as they transform from mutually entranced creators to jealous and spurned paramours, to fierce rivals, and finally to bitter enemies. Told in lyrical, feverish, and sometimes delirious prose, Nina Shope delivers a captivating narrative at the crossroads of Mary Shelley and Donna Tartt.