Jeanine Cummins

Jeanine Cummins is an American author of Irish and Puerto Rican heritage. Born in Rota, Spain, where her father was stationed in the US Navy, she spent her childhood in Gaithersburg, Maryland. She attended Towson University, majoring in English and communications. After university, she worked as a bartender in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for two years before moving to New York City and working in the publishing industry for 10 years. Her first book, the memoir "A Rip in Heaven," published in 2004, recounts a violent attack on her brother and cousins. Her novels "The Outside Boy" and "The Crooked Branch" explore Irish history. Her most famous work, "American Dirt," published in 2020, tells the story of a mother and son fleeing Mexico for the United States. The book became a #1 New York Times bestseller, was selected for Oprah's Book Club, and has been translated into numerous languages. Her upcoming novel, "Speak to Me of Home," is set in Puerto Rico and explores multigenerational family dynamics.