Emily Holleman

The teenage characters in Rita Bullwinkel’s debut novel catalyze readers’ reckonings with their own time spent as teenagers.

While rereading Tobias Wolff’s memoir, an author realizes that Wolff’s mother, vividly drawn, was an “agent of perpetual reinvention.”

In Sarah Shun-lien Bynum’s short story collection, legends and folklore shape the characters’ understanding of their relationships and the wider world—for good or ill.