Lydia Conklin is an American writer of essays, fiction, and poetry. She is the author of the essay collection The Best Thing That Can Happen, which was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award. She is also the recipient of a Whiting Award, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, The Paris Review, The New York Times Magazine, and other publications.