Allegra Goodman, major contemporary fiction writer, is the author of the new novel, This Is Not About Us (February, 2026), a kaleidoscopic portrait of a modern family torn apart by a senseless fight between two grandmothers, Sylvia and Helen Rubinstein, about apple cake.

Geraldine Brooks praised Goodman's novel: “Every character . . . is endowed by their creator with the fullest complements of flaws, tics, vices, strengths, virtues and moments of nobility. . . . Goodman presides over her universe with a light and sometimes funny touch.”

Goodman is also the author of the national bestseller, Isola (paperback, December, 2025), about a young noblewoman and her lover marooned on an island — as a penalty for forbidden love — in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the 16th century. Based a real historical incident, Isola was named a “Best Book of the Year” by TIME magazine and The Washington Post.

7:30 p.m. Wednesday, February 11
University at Albany
Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center
1400 Washington Avenue
Albany NY 12222

Free and open to the public.
Books will be available for sale.
A signing will follow the conversation.
https://www.nyswritersinstitute.org/allegragoodman

Her other works include the National Book Award finalist Kaaterskill Falls (1998), The Chalk Artist (2017), The Cookbook Collector (2010), Intuition (2006), Sam (2003), Paradise Park (2001), The Other Side of the Island (2008), short fiction collections The Family Markowitz (1997), and Total Immersion (1998), and the non-fiction Speaking of Writing: A Brief Rhetoric.