R.O. Kwon’s first novel, The Incendiaries, is forthcoming from Riverhead in July of 2018. She is a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, Vice, Time, Noon, Electric Literature, Playboy, San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere. She has received awards and fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, Omi International, and the Norman Mailer Writers' Colony. Born in South Korea, she’s mostly lived in the United States.
Palaver (2025) Bryan Washington "Palaver has my heart. The days have felt less heavy while I've gotten to spend time in the novel's capacious world and I can already tell I'll want to reread soon. Bryan Washington is a genius and you want this gorgeous book."
Oxford Soju Club (2025) Jinwoo Park "A fascinating, genre-shifting debut shaped as much by the twists and turns of espionage as by the pull of diasporic longing. I read Oxford Soju Club in one sitting, gripped by Jinwoo Park's ingenious evoking of a world I didn't want to leave."
The Other Wife (2025) Jackie Thomas-Kennedy "Tender, wise, and thoroughly compelling, The Other Wife teems with the complicated pleasures and desolations of longing. Jackie Thomas-Kennedy knows a great deal about the life-shaping strength of desire."
Songs of No Provenance (2025) Lydi Conklin "Thrilling and utterly engrossing, this is an extraordinary debut from a writer endlessly astute about shame, harm, the possibility of repair, and the complexities of ambition. Reading Songs of No Provenance, I thought of D.W. Winnicott saying, 'It is a joy to be hidden and a disaster not to be found.' Conklin's novel helps light paths to lead readers out of hiding."
When the Harvest Comes (2025) Denne Michele Norris "When the Harvest Comes is abundant with a kind of grace I'm especially hungry for these days: the possibility that we can mend at least part of what we've torn apart, the chance we're not entirely too late."
Fruit of the Dead (2024) Rachel Lyon "Mesmerized and profoundly alarmed, I read this in one go; I've been haunted by it ever since. I've passionately loved Lyon's writing for years, and Fruit of the Dead further confirms what I've long suspected: I want to lunge to read anything she writes."
The Fetishist (2024) Katherine Min "Incandescent, astonishing, a miracle. I'm elated and deeply grateful this book exists."
Land of Milk and Honey (2023) C Pam Zhang "A brilliant, all-too-prescient novel. Extraordinary in its prose, vision, and power, Land of Milk and Honey is a triumph of a book to devour now and to treasure through the ages."
Sharon Dodua Otoo "Thrillingly, astonishingly original. You will not have read anything quite like this before."
The Faraway World (2023) Patricia Engel "I've long maintained that I want to read anything Engel writes; I'm sure The Faraway World collection will further confirm this desire."
Central Places (2023) Delia Cai "An incandescent debut shedding light on old friendships, half-forgotten selves, and ferocious longings past and present, Central Places is a revelation, disquieting and so very moving, and dazzling with insight."
Nuclear Family (2022) Joseph Han "A haunting, tender, potent, and frequently very funny testament to the pull of history and the tenacity of ghosts. Spellbinding and original, Nuclear Family is a novel to hold close."
The Immortal King Rao (2022) Vauhini Vara "Utterly, thrillingly brilliant. From the first unforgettable page to the last, The Immortal King Rao is a form-inventing, genre-exploding triumph. Vauhini Vara's bravura debut has reshaped my brain and expanded my heart."
End of the World House (2022) Adrienne Celt "In this new novel from the ever-ingenious Adrienne Celt, a couple of close friends are visiting the Louvre when they find that the world as they've known it has ended. Marvelously imaginative and terrifyingly plausible, a time-bending funhouse riddled with rabbit holes, End of the World House is slippery and uncanny and so very compelling."
The Perishing (2021) Natashia Deon "Remarkable, strange, and richly inventive, Natashia Deón's The Perishing will keep you up all night and haunt you long afterward. Deón's newest novel is a wonder and a feat."
Fight Night (2021) Miriam Toews "In Fight Night as in her previous books, Miriam Toews is a genius. Her gigantic mind and heart are singular; her sentence-making powers, extraordinary. Living in a time when Toews is writing is a reason to rejoice."
With Teeth (2021) Kristen Arnett "From the very wise, very funny Kristen Arnett, With Teeth is as exhilaratingly candid as it is morally complex. Three cheers for this enthralling new book, which affirms my status as a card-carrying, rip-roaring, lifelong admirer of Arnett’s writing."
God Spare the Girls (2021) Kelsey McKinney "I don't know what I was more moved by in God Spare the Girls: the depths and twists of family love, the complexities of faith, or the failures of both faith and love. A devastating and large-hearted novel."
The Prophets (2021) Robert Jones Jr "I’ve loved the writing of Robert Jones, Jr., for years, and The Prophets is an absolute triumph, a symphonic evocation of the heights and depths of pain, joy, and love."
Outlawed (2021) Anna North "I'm dazzled by this feminist Western about a world in which women's worth and right to live are determined by the vagaries of fertility. Set in an alternate past, one all too similar to our today, Outlawed is terrifying, wise, tender, and thrilling. A masterpiece."
Hades, Argentina (2021) Daniel Loedel "Strange, gorgeous, and terrifying--a book for the grievers, and for those of us who wish we could turn back time to remedy past mistakes--and so, for all of us."
The Thirty Names of Night (2020) Zeyn Joukhadar "Zeyn Joukhadar’s new book is a vivid exploration of loss, art, queer and trans communities, and the persistence of history. Often tender, always engrossing, The Thirty Names of Night is a feat."
Life Events (2020) Karolina Waclawiak "Brilliant and exhilarating. Every page of Life Events shines with insight, feeling, and astonishing candor, and not a sentence rings false. I love this novel."
All My Mother's Lovers (2020) Ilana Masad "Masad’s impressive novel delves into varieties of that strange magic, love, and of its expansive, life-shaping possibilities. All My Mother's Lovers is a debut of rare and vital generosity."
Trust Exercise (2019) Susan Choi "As soon as I finished . . . [I was] desperate to talk about the novel with anyone else who'd read it. A startling, perplexing, fascinating book by a writer I've long been--and will always be--eager to read."
A River of Stars (2018) Vanessa Hua "Vanessa Hua’s epic A River of Stars follows a pair of pregnant Chinese immigrant women—two of the more vibrant characters I’ve come across in a while—on the lam from Los Angeles to San Francisco’s Chinatown."
