J. Ryan Stradal

J. Ryan Stradal uses food, work, and family inheritance to anchor novels about Midwestern life. Raised in Minnesota, he made his debut with Kitchens of the Great Midwest, which received the American Booksellers Association's award for debut fiction. The Lager Queen of Minnesota expanded his interest in food businesses and the women who sustain them. Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club follows Mariel and Ned, heirs to two sharply different restaurant families. Their marriage, a struggling rural supper club, and a devastating loss allow the novel to examine obligation, estrangement, and the uncertain future of regional institutions. Pamela Dorman Books published the novel in 2023, with Penguin Books issuing the paperback. Stradal's essays and stories have appeared in outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, Granta, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. His fiction is contemporary in setting but multigenerational in scope, using kitchens and dining rooms as places where economic change becomes intimate.