Iris Jamahl Dunkle
Iris Jamahl Dunkle is chair of the NBCC biography committee. She is also a poet, biographer, and scholar who writes about women who have been forgotten or misremembered. Her latest biography, Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb (University of California Press, 2024) was a USA Today bestseller. Her forthcoming book, Endnotes on the West (Texas Review Press, 2028) is an erasure of The Grapes of Wrath.
Interviews with Iris Jamahl Dunkle
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1
A Perfect Turmoil: Walter E. Fernald and the Struggle to Care for America’s Disabled
by Alex Green -
2
Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood's First South Asian Star
by Mayukh Sen -
3
Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution
by Amanda Vaill -
4
Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore
by Ashley D. Farmer -
5
Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford
by Carla Kaplan
The Best Biographies: The 2026 NBCC Shortlist, recommended by Iris Jamahl Dunkle
The Best Biographies: The 2026 NBCC Shortlist, recommended by Iris Jamahl Dunkle
Every year, we ask the chair of the National Book Critics Circle biography committee to talk us through their shortlist of the best new books in the genre. Here, Iris Jamahl Dunkle—the award-winning biographer, poet and critic—introduces us to the winning title, a deeply-researched profile of a special education pioneer, as well as the four runners-up.
