Quiara Alegria Hudes

"Poems for contemporary conundrums and shimmering solutions."

"“Ceremony” is about contemporary Native American characters who need to reconnect with deep past, with ancestral memory."

"A splendid series of vulgar, exuberant, and holy monologues about everyday contemporary life."

"I’d need poems. I love far too many, and favorites change daily. I’d bring Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Collected Poems,” for curiosity and a wanderlust heart."

"This book is an elixir, spirit medicine, and feminine life force. A series of brown girls’ step into the spotlight and testify to central moments in their girlhood. The final pages make me feel reborn each and every time."

"I’d bring James Baldwin’s evergreen “The Fire Next Time,” to my island to remember how elegantly language can portray ferocity, honesty, and uncompromising social criticism."

"For a playful mood, I’d turn to Murkami’s sexual coming of age novel. Bizarre and erotic, sensual and dreamy, this surrealistic page turner includes bibliophile and jazz subplots custom tailored to my nerd-dom."

"For complete submersion in a novelistic world I’d choose Edward P. Jones’ epic masterpiece, “The Known World.” A universe unto itself, there are terrible moments and beautiful revelations about a black slave owner and the many lives around him."