About Me: J. Ryan Stradal is the author of the New York Times bestseller "Kitchens of the Great Midwest." His shorter work has appeared in Granta, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The Rumpus, and Hobart, among other publications. He lives in Los Angeles, where he's an editor-at-large at Unnamed Press, and is at work on a novel set in his home state of Minnesota.