🎯 Where Should I Start?
ⓘ About Gish Jen
Gish Jen is an American published author. She was born on August 12, 1955 in Long Island, New York. She grew up there, speaking more Yiddish than Chinese. Since then, she has been featured in a PBS American Masters program on the American novel. She has also received a Guggenheim fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Fullbright fellowship, and a Radcliffe Institute fellowship. In 1999, she was given a Lannan Literary Prize. In 2003, the American Academy of Arts and Letters presented her with the Harold and Mildred Strauss Living Award. In 2009 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has also been published in the New Yorker and the Atlantic in addition to other magazines and publications, periodicals, textbooks and anthologies.
All Book Series by Gish Jen
The Girl at the Baggage Claim
Latest in the series · book 2 of 2 · published 2018
The American Newness
Series opener · book 1 of 18 · published 1986 Anthology · Irving Howe
The Southern Tradition
Book 5 of 18 · published 1994 Anthology · Eugene D. Genovese
The Dissent Of The Governed
Book 7 of 18 · published 1998 Anthology · Stephen L. Carter
Achieving Our Country
Book 8 of 18 · published 1999 Anthology · Richard M. Rorty
The Real American Dream
Book 9 of 18 · published 1999 Anthology · Andrew Delbanco
Reporting The Universe
Book 11 of 18 · published 2003 Anthology · E.L. Doctorow
Architecture As Signs And Systems
Book 13 of 18 · published 2004 Anthology · Robert Venturi
Reshaping The Work-family Debate
Book 14 of 18 · published 2010 Anthology · Joan C. Williams
Three Songs, Three Singers, Three Nations
Book 17 of 18 · published 2015 Anthology · Greil Marcus
Just A Journalist
Latest in the series · book 18 of 18 · published 2017 Anthology · Linda Greenhouse
Growing Up Female: Stories By Women Writers From the American Mosaic
Book 3 of 9 · published 1993
Charlie Chan is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction
Book 4 of 9 · published 1993
Humor Me: An Anthology of Humor by Writers of Color
Book 8 of 9 · published 2002
Charlie Chan Is Dead 2: At Home in the World
Latest in the series · book 9 of 9 · published 2004
? Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Gish Jen?
Gish Jen is an American published author. She was born on August 12, 1955 in Long Island, New York. She grew up there, speaking more Yiddish than Chinese.
Which Gish Jen series should I start with?
The best place to start is The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures series, the earliest of Gish Jen's multi-book series: it opens with The American Newness (1986) and runs to 18 books across 1986–2017, ending with Just A Journalist (2017).
How many books has Gish Jen written?
Gish Jen has 37 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1986 and 2025. 18 of them belong to 1 named series — the largest being The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures series with 18 books — and 19 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.
In what order should Gish Jen's series be read?
Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Gish Jen's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures (1986–2017, 18 books).
How are Gish Jen's books organised into series?
This guide splits Gish Jen's 37 books into 1 named series and 19 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures (18 books, 1986–2017).