Dan Chaon is a Clevelander who teaches writing at Oberlin College, his well known literary efforts appear in The Best American Short Stories, and his collection Among the Missing was nominated for the National Book Award. He's compiled a comprehensive list of "must reads," providing a unique look into his favorite and most recommended reading.

RECOMMENDED NOVELS
1. The Known World-Edward P. Jones
2. Old School-Tobias Wolff
3. Gangster We Are All Looking For-Thi Dien Thuy Le
4. Actress in the House-Joseph McElroy
5. The Unprofessionals-Julie Hecht
6. The Truth About Celia-Kevin Brockmeier
7. The Book of Salt-Monique Truong
8. The Mammoth Cheese-Sheri Holman
9. The Ecstatic-Victor Lavalle
10. Liars and Saints-Maile Meloy
11. Sleep Toward Heaven-Amanda Eyre Ward
12. No Matter How Much You Promise -Edgardo Yunque
13. Daylight-Elizabeth Knox
14. Timoleon Vieta Come Home-Dan Rhodes
15. Set This House in Order-Matt Ruff
16. What Was She Thinking?-Zoe Heller
17. Fox Girl-Nora Okja Keller
18. Purple Hibiscus-Chimamandu Ngozi Adichie
19. Mailman-J. Robert Lennon
20. Night Journey-Murad Kalam

RECOMMENDED POETRY 1. Call Me Ishmael Tonight-Agha Shahid Ali
2. Blue Hour-Carolyn Forche
3. Notes From A Divided Country-Suji Kwock Kim
4. The Strange Hours Travelers Keep-August Kleinzahler
5. Unfortunately, It Was Paradise-Mahmoud Darwish
6. Jelly Roll-Kevin Young
7. Threshold-Shirley Kaufman
8. Some Values of Landscape and Weather-Peter Gizzi
9 Miracle Fruit-Aimee Nezhukumatathil
10. Ostinato Vamps-Wanda Coleman
11. The Room Where I Was Born-Brian Teare
12. Drift-Mary Kinzie
13. Thieves Latin-Peter Jay Shippy
14. Departure-Rosanna Warren
15. Far Side of the Earth-Tom Sleigh
16. Nine Alexandrias-Semezdin Mehmedinovic
17. Gone-Fanny Howe
18. All Day Permanent Red-Christopher Logue
19. Hammer-Mark Turpin
20. Potential Stranger-Killarney Clary

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