Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America

“This is a person well-versed in writing about other people and communities and systems. It was exciting to have her bring that accomplished reporter’s eye to a place she loves, which is her hometown of Urbana, Ohio. I feel lucky to have read it because she brings that skillset to an American town in crisis, and to her relationship to this town and to the people and her family. It all comes together. That’s why I really appreciated this book: that you can have a memoir that is also deeply researched, meticulously reported, and has a big way of thinking about how systems interact.” Read more...

The Best Memoirs: The 2026 NBCC Autobiography Shortlist

Grace Talusan, Literary Scholar