2026 READING LIST
Updated as of June 2, 2026
Titles in bold are books I’m currently reading
Previous years: 2024, 2025
FICTION
Alexis, André: Fifteen Dogs
Balle, Solvej (trans. Sophia Hersi Smith & Jennifer Russell): On The Calculation of Volume IV
Buehlman, Christopher: Between Two Fires
Cagnati, Inès (trans. Liesl Schillinger): Crazy Genie
Daanje, Anjet (trans. David McKay): The Remembered Soldier
Delany, Samuel R.: Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
Ferrante, Elena (trans. Ann Goldstein): My Brilliant Friend
Jemisin, N. K.: The Fifth Season
Latronico, Vincenzo (trans. Sophie Hughes): Perfection
Laurence, Margaret: The Stone Angel
MacLeod, Alistair: No Great Mischief
Ōe, Kenzaburō (trans. John Nathan): A Personal Matter
O’Farrell, Maggie: Hamnet
Opsina, María (trans. Heather Cleary): Only a Little While Here
Kawakami, Mieko (trans. Sam Bett & David Boyd): Breasts and Eggs
Sotto Yambao, Samantha: Water Moon
Stuart, Douglas: Young Mungo
Vo, Nghi: When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain
Wachman, Sam: The Sunflower Boys
Wood, Benjamin: Seascraper
Yang, Shuang-zi (trans. Lin King): Taiwan Travelogue
SHORT FICTION
Gaitskill, Mary: Bad Behavior
Gallant, Mavis: From the Fifteenth District
Lawrence, D.H.: The Prussian Officer and Other Stories
Lispector, Clarice (trans. Katrina Dodson): Complete Stories
Munro, Alice: The Progress of Love
Munro, Alice: Friend of My Youth
Ross, Jacquelyn Zong-Li: The Longest Way to Eat a Melon
NONFICTION
Baldwin, James: The Fire Next Time
Downs, Alan: The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing up Gay in a Straight Man’s World
Le Guin, Ursula K.: The Language of the Night: Essays on Writing, Science Fiction, and Fantasy
Monette, Paul: Borrowed Time: An Aids Memoir
POETRY
Cavafy, Constantine P. (trans. Rae Dalven): The Complete Poems of Cavafy: Expanded Edition
Chemidlin, Grant: In the Middle of a Better World
Giovanni, Nikki: Cotton candy on a rainy day
Glück, Louise: The Wild Iris
Gunn, Thom: The Passages of Joy
Miłosz, Czesław (trans. Czesław Miłosz & Lillian Vallee): Bells in Winter
Ondaatje, Michael: The Distance of a Shout: Selected Poems
Whitman, Walt: Leaves of Grass
Williams, Oscar (editor): Immortal Poems of the English Language