Consider the personal effects one leaves behind, the way those objects, once laid out, recall the idiosyncratic logic of a life—is there more compelling inspiration for a novel? Authors Coco Picard and Sue Mell met through the BookEnds SUNY alumni group months before their debut novels came out. They couldn’t stop talking about books and art—and the scarcity of time to create either one. While their novels differ in structure—The Healing Circle’s experimental versus Provenance’s traditional form—these newfound friends soon discovered that their books align at a juncture of loss and the resonance of inanimate things. —CRAFT