Hilton Als calls Evgenia Citkowitz's first novel “a tour-de-force, a powerful, wicked, compassionate, and beautifully written account of the dangers we keep in our head and heart, including love” (New Yorker). The Shades (2018) is a haunting tale about a British family reeling in the aftermath of tragedy. Citkowitz's debut novella and short story collection, Ether (2018), was a New York Times Editors' Choice. Citkowitz was born in New York and educated in London and the United States, and currently lives in Los Angeles. The Some Favorite Writers series is sponsored by the UCLA Department of English and Friends of English, and organized by Mona Simpson.