Jess Row is a novelist, essayist, and senior dharma teacher at the Kwan Um School of Zen. His second novel, The New Earth, will be published in March 2023. His other books include Your Face in Mine and  White Flights: Race, Fiction, and the American Imagination. His essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Bookforum, The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review, Kyoto Review, The Believer, and CNN.com.