Author Guide · Essays
Books Written by
In the spring of 2009 Eula Biss had a son, in the middle of the H1N1 flu pandemic, and had to decide whether to vaccinate him. Her father, a doctor, had no doubts; she had many. The book she wrote about it, On Immunity (2014), was named one of the New York Times Book Review’s ten best books of the year. Biss, an American essayist born in 1977, writes short, linked sections that move between her own life, history and other books: telephone poles and lynching, vaccines and Dracula, a washing machine and Monopoly. She published four books between 2002 and 2020. This guide covers her 4 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 4 key books · 2002–2020 · Updated October 2026
ClickTap a spine to jump to that book below.
Quick answer
Eula Biss has published four books: The Balloonists (2002), Notes from No Man’s Land (2009), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism, On Immunity (2014) and Having and Being Had (2020). Start with On Immunity; read on for what each book covers and the order to read them in.
Where to Start with Eula Biss
If you want her best-known book
→ On Immunity (2014) — vaccination, fear and the people around us.
If you want her essays on race in America
→ Notes from No Man’s Land (2009) — the book that won the National Book Critics Circle Award.
If you want her book on money and work
→ Having and Being Had (2020) — essays written after buying a house.
If you want to see where she began
→ The Balloonists (2002) — prose poems written as a student.
4 Eula Biss Books, in Order
The Balloonists
Her first book, a sequence of prose poems published by Hanging Loose Press, written while she was an undergraduate at Hampshire College. The pieces circle her family history and her parents, and how a person’s sense of self is shaped by, and separates from, where they come from.
Notes from No Man’s Land
Thirteen essays on race in America, often from the position of a white woman in largely Black neighbourhoods and classrooms. The first, “Time and Distance Overcome”, sets the history of the telephone pole beside the history of lynching; “Goodbye to All That” answers Joan Didion’s essay about leaving New York. The manuscript won the 2008 Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize, and the book won the National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism.
On Immunity
Starting from the birth of her son in 2009, during the H1N1 pandemic, Biss examines the fear of vaccines and of what might be in our food, mattresses and medicines, set against her father’s calm as a doctor. She draws on the myth of Achilles, Voltaire’s Candide, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Rachel Carson and Susan Sontag. It was one of the New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2014 and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism.
Having and Being Had
Written after she and her family bought a house, a book she frames around “the time before I owned a washing machine and the time after”. Each short essay starts from an object or activity, such as a piano, a game of Monopoly or redlining, and asks what work and things are worth, with help from Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf and John Kenneth Galbraith. Riverhead published it in September 2020.
In What Order to Read Eula Biss
None of her books depends on another, and with only four you can read them all in a few weeks. The three essay books do share a habit: each takes something ordinary (a phone line, a vaccine, a house) and follows it into the agreements people make with each other without noticing.
On Immunity is the most focused of them and the easiest way in. Go on to Notes from No Man’s Land and Having and Being Had, which complete the set, and finish with The Balloonists, the poetry she wrote before the essays.
A reading path
1. On Immunity (2014)
2. Notes from No Man’s Land (2009)
3. Having and Being Had (2020)
4. The Balloonists (2002)
The years · 1977–2020
Quick facts about Eula Biss
- Known for
- Eula Biss is known for essays that connect her own life to public questions, above all On Immunity (2014), her book about vaccination and the fear around it.
- 1977
- Born in the United States
- 2002
- The Balloonists
- 2014
- On Immunity
- Born
- 1977, United States
- Education
- Hampshire College; MFA in nonfiction writing, University of Iowa
- Taught
- Nonfiction writing at Northwestern University, from 2006
- Prizes
- National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism, for Notes from No Man’s Land
- Fellowships
- Guggenheim Fellowship; New America Fellowship
- Also
- A founding editor of Essay Press; married to the writer John Bresland
The red mark is 2014: On Immunity, her book about vaccination.
How Eula Biss Writes
Biss writes in short sections rather than continuous chapters. Each section can hold a memory, a fact from history, a definition or a line from another writer, and the argument grows from how they sit next to each other. In “Time and Distance Overcome” she lets the history of telephone poles and reports of lynchings from those poles stand side by side.
She puts herself in the books, but as a test case rather than the subject. In Notes from No Man’s Land she looks at what being white means in the places she lived and taught; in Having and Being Had she examines her own comfortable house and income. Her reading is always visible: Didion, Sontag, Carson, Woolf and Dickinson are quoted and argued with.
Her subjects are the agreements people keep without noticing them. On Immunity ends on the image of immunity as “a shared space”, and the same question, what we owe the people around us, runs through her books on race and on money. She started as a poet, and her first book, The Balloonists, is prose poetry.
Watch
Eula Biss on On Immunity
At the Chicago Humanities Festival in 2014, Biss talks about On Immunity with Katie Watson, professor of medical humanities and bioethics at Northwestern University.
Frequently asked questions about Eula Biss’s books
How many books has Eula Biss written?
Four: The Balloonists (2002), Notes from No Man’s Land (2009), On Immunity (2014) and Having and Being Had (2020). All four are on this page.
What are Eula Biss’s books in order?
The Balloonists (2002), Notes from No Man’s Land: American Essays (2009), On Immunity: An Inoculation (2014) and Having and Being Had (2020).
Where should I start with Eula Biss?
With On Immunity (2014), her best-known book, which follows her decision about vaccinating her son into the history and metaphors of immunity. If race in America interests you more, start with Notes from No Man’s Land.
What is Eula Biss’s most famous book?
On Immunity: An Inoculation (2014). It was one of the New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2014, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism, and in February 2015 a pick for Mark Zuckerberg’s online book club.
Is On Immunity for or against vaccines?
It treats vaccination as a shared responsibility rather than a private choice. Biss takes the fears of parents seriously, including her own, but the book argues that we cannot protect ourselves or our children from the world alone, and ends on immunity as “a shared space”.
What is Notes from No Man’s Land about?
Race in America. Its thirteen essays move through the places Biss lived, including New York, and look at white privilege and racism in families, schools and neighbourhoods. It opens with “Time and Distance Overcome”, on telephone poles and lynching.
What prizes has Eula Biss won?
The National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism and the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize, both for Notes from No Man’s Land, as well as the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, a Pushcart Prize, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Is Eula Biss still alive?
Yes. She was born in 1977 and lives near Chicago.
Is Eula Biss working on a new book?
According to Smith College in 2025, she is working on a collection of essays about how private property has shaped the world. No title or date has been announced.
Is The Balloonists poetry?
Yes. Her first book is a collection of prose poems about her family, published by Hanging Loose Press in 2002, when she was in her mid-twenties.
Footnotes
- Eula Biss — Wikipedia
- Notes from No Man’s Land — Wikipedia
- On Immunity — Wikipedia
- Review of On Immunity — The Boston Globe, 2014
- Having and Being Had — Kirkus Reviews
- Eula Biss — John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Immunity is a shared space—a garden we tend together.”
— Eula Biss, On Immunity: An Inoculation (2014)
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