Four authors with UMSL ties wrote books that were included in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s annual roundup of favorite books, including (from left) “Alfred Kazin’s Journals” by Richard Cook, chair of the Department of English; “The Inverted Forest” by John Dalton, director of the MFA in Creative Writing program; “Founding St. Louis” by J. Frederick Fausz, associate professor of history; and “Dancing With Gravity” by English alumna Anene Tressler-Hauschultz.