Alena Graedon’s debut novel, The Word Exchange, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and Paperback Row pick and was selected as a best novel of 2014 by Kirkus, Electric Literature, and others. It has been translated into eight languages. Her nonfiction has been published in The Believer and The New York Times Book Review, among other publications. A graduate of Brown University and Columbia University’s MFA program, Graedon has been a fellow at several artist colonies, including MacDowell, Ucross, and Yaddo. She teaches at Columbia and lives in Brooklyn, New York.