Tayari Jones, author of Silver Sparrow The Love Wife by Gish Jen:  This novel takes us to the heart of the most complicated–and a complicating–American family. It broke my heart and then put it back together again. Last Seen by Jacqueline Jones Lamon: Sometimes poetry can take us somewhere that fiction just can’t. These poemsContinue reading

It’s no secret that we’re all big readers at Algonquin–and not just of our own titles. Although my mother told me never to play favorites, at the end of each year, while trimming the tree or coming up with resolutions I inevitably fail to keep (one of these days I will learn how to surf),Continue reading

I discovered the writing of Lydia Davis during my freshman year at Sarah Lawrence College, when a friend loaned me a copy of her first short story collection, Break it Down, and said, “You have to read this. You’ll love it.” Davis immediately became one of my favorite writers; I consumed her subsequent collections andContinue reading