Best of Boston

“A page, turning, is a wing lifted with no twin, and therefore no flight. And yet we are moved,” writes Ocean Vuong in his earthquake of a novel, 2019’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. Its release marked a fitting end to a year that saw the Northampton resident, an assistant professor at UMass Amherst as well as a lauded poet, receive a MacArthur “genius” grant. And that’s just scratching the surface of the 31-year-old’s many accomplishments—already a master of his craft, we know Vuong will continue to move us, time and time again.