Jung Yun — All the World Can Hold
Three strangers board a cruise ship bound for Bermuda just after 9/11, each carrying regrets and the fragile possibility of setting them right.
Why we picked this
Yun's previous novels earned New York Times and Center for Fiction recognition. Setting a novel on a cruise ship days after 9/11 is a sharp framing device for the questions about vulnerability and connection that interest her.
Jung Yun’s “All the World Can Hold” follows three passengers from different backgrounds as they board a cruise ship for Bermuda in the days after September 11, 2001. The novel explores how people balance needs against wants and the regrets they carry alongside the rare chances to address them. It is a story about proximity: what happens when strangers are confined together during a moment of collective uncertainty.
Yun was born in Seoul, South Korea, raised in Fargo, North Dakota, and holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her previous novel “O Beautiful” was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and her debut “Shelter” was longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. She’ll be joined by Lauren Francis-Sharma, a Pushcart-nominated author whose “Casualties of Truth” was a finalist for the 2025 Caricon Prize. Francis-Sharma also chairs awards for the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and serves as Assistant Director of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
Free admission with first-come, first-served seating.