Interior Chinatown - Charles Yu

Shortlisted for the National Book Award in fiction, Interior Chinatown is a genre-bending masterpiece that explores the confining stereotypes of Asian Americans in Hollywood and in American culture more broadly. Both extensively researched and startlingly original, Interior Chinatown is a profound and topical exploration of the weight of stereotypes, racism, and assimilation in American culture.

Caste - Isabel Wilkerson

Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of our Discontents examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how a hierarchy of social divisions still defines our lives today. Wilkerson brings the past’s complexities to vivid life through her passionate research and her profound gift for connecting with audiences of all backgrounds.

A Burning - Megha Majumdar

The stunning debut from Megha Majumdar, A Burning, relentlessly traces the lives of three characters whose fates become irrevocably intertwined in the wake of a devastating act of domestic terrorism. Set in a contemporary India, Majumdar ignites a dazzling literary thriller about fate, justice, class, and political turmoil that—despite the specificity of its setting—feels unsettlingly universal. 

The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett

Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half is an engrossing page-turner about inseparable twin sisters, one black and one white, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds. Bennett explores the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person’s decisions, desires, and expectations. 

2018: The Friend - Sigrid Nunez

A literary sensation and a writer of uncommon talent, Sigrid Nunez is the author of many novels. Her writing spans over a wide range of genres and themes, but the constant is the level of familiarity she achieves with her readers through her intimate and confessional tone.

2016: The Underground Railroad (Pulitzer Prize Winner) (National Book Award Winner) (Oprah's Book Club) - Colson Whitehead

Colson Whitehead has established himself as one of the most versatile and innovative writers in contemporary literature. The author of eight books, he is a MacArthur fellow and Pulitzer Prize finalist.

2014: Redeployment - Phil Klay

United States Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay wowed critics and readers alike with his short story collection Redeployment, which was named “one of the best debuts of the year” (The Oregonian.)

1999: Waiting - Ha Jin

Ha Jin is an award-winning novelist and a professor at Boston University. Born in China and a veteran of the People’s Liberation Army, Jin’s fascinating upbringing makes him a captivating speaker on China’s past and present.

2015: Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates

MacArthur fellow Ta-Nehisi Coates has emerged as an essential voice for our times. His award-winning writing combines reportage, historical analysis, and personal narrative to address some of America’s most complex and challenging issues pertaining to culture and identity. He is also the current author of the Marvel comics The Black Panther and Captain America.

2012: Behind the Beautiful Forevers - Katherine Boo

Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo is among the most influential journalists writing about disadvantaged populations. Her New York Times bestseller Behind the Beautiful Forevers, based on years of reporting in Mumbai, exposes one of the twenty-first century’s hidden worlds with uncompromising clarity and empathy.

2009: The First Tycoon - T.J. Stiles

T. J. Stiles is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The First Tycoon, a biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Custer’s Trials, a biography of George Armstrong Custer. He has served as a historical adviser and on-screen expert for American Experience programs on PBS.

1997: American Sphinx - Joseph J. Ellis

A leading scholar of American history, Joseph J. Ellis is a Pulitzer Prize winner for his biographies of our nation’s earliest presidents. Ellis is a distinguished professor and seasoned speaker who regales audiences with stories of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other U.S. presidents.

2015: Voyage of the Sable Venus - Robin Coste Lewis

Robin Coste Lewis is an electrifying new voice in contemporary poetry. Both tender and arresting in her poems, Lewis is also an astute cultural critic, alert to the complexities of race and the black female voice.

2014: Brown Girl Dreaming - Jacqueline Woodson

Jacqueline Woodson is a four-time Newbery Honor winner, a recipient of the NAACP Image Award, and was recently named the Young People’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. She gives stirring lectures that delve into the inspiration behind her books and explore important issues of race, gender, and bullying.