The Anthologist

n 2013, Colleen Kinder started asking writers “about the strangers lurking in the back rooms of memory,” the chance encounters and passing acquaintances that nonetheless shaped (Algonquin Books, October 2021), edited by Kinder, more than sixty writers—including Lauren Groff, Pam Houston, Vanessa Hua, and Michelle Tea—reflect on serendipity and “the cast of characters who are randomly assembled in our path, dissolving quicker than we can spin around and ask, ‘What was your na—?’”