First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing

Cai Emmons is the author of the novels Weather Woman, His Mother's Son, and The Stylist. Emmons has taught at various colleges and universities, including the University of Southern California. Since 2002 she has been teaching fiction and screenwriting at the University of Oregon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarah Stone’s new novel, Hungry Ghost Theater, was published by WTAW Press in October 2018. Her first novel is called The True Sources of the Nile. She teaches creative writing for the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers and Stanford Continuing Studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Karen Bender is the author of short story collections The New Order and Refund, the novels A Town of Empty Rooms and Like Normal People and is co-editor of the anthology Choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christina Dalcher is the author of VOX. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Mason is a physician and author of The Piano Tuner, A Far Country, and The Winter Soldier.  He is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Stanford University Department of Psychiatry, and his research and teaching interests include the subjective experience of mental illness and the influence of literature, history, and culture on the practice of medicine. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...

Beth Macy is a journalist and author.  Her latest book, Dopesick, focuses on one of America's epicenters for the opioid crisis.  The book follows distressed communities in Central Appalachia to wealthy suburbs.  Her other books include Factory Man and Truevine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew Thomas's New York Times-bestselling novel We Are Not Ourselves was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and the John Gardner Fiction Book Award; longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, the Guardian First Book Award, and the Folio Prize; named a Notable Book of the year by the New York Times; named one of the best books of the...

Ben Marcus is the author of five books of fiction: The Age of Wire and String, Notable American Women, The Flame Alphabet, Leaving the Sea, and Notes from the Fog. His stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in Harper’s, The New Yorker, Granta, The Paris Review, Conjunctions, Bomb, the Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. He is the editor of The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories an...

Bernice McFadden is the author of nine critically acclaimed novels including Sugar, Loving Donovan, Nowhere Is a Place, The Warmest December, Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors’ Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012), Glorious, and The Book of Harlan (winner of a 2017 American Book Award and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction). She is a four-time Hurs...

Amitava Kumar writes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.  His latest novel is called Immigrant, Montana. He was born in Ara, and grew up in the nearby town of Patna, famous for its corruption, crushing poverty and delicious mangoes. Kumar is the author of several books of non-fiction and two novels. He lives in Poughkeepsie, in upstate New York, where he is the Helen D. Lockwood Professor of English...

Hannah Tinti is the author of the bestselling novel The Good Thief, which won The Center for Fiction’s first novel prize, and the story collection Animal Crackers, a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elissa Schappell is an American novelist, short-story writer, editor and essayist.  Her latest story collection is called Blueprints for Building Better Girls. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gary Shteyngart is the author of the memoir Little Failure and the novels Super Sad True Love Story, Absurdistan, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, and Lake Success. His work has been translated into twenty-six languages. Shteyngart lives in New York City and upstate New York. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Francine Prose is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and critic.  Her latest book is an essay collection called What to Read and Why. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kirstin Valdez Quade is an American writer. Her debut short story collection, Night at the Fiestas, received critical praise and won awards. A review in the New York Times labeled her stories "legitimate masterpieces" and called the book a "haunting and beautiful debut story collection." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joe Mungo Reed was born in London and raised in Gloucestershire, England. He has a master’s in philosophy and politics at the University of Edinburgh and an MFA in creative writing at Syracuse University, where he won the Joyce Carol Oates Award in Fiction. He is the author of the novel, We Begin Our Ascent, and his short stories have appeared in VQR and Gigantic and anthologized in Best of Gigant...

Stephanie Feldman and Nathaniel Popkin edited Who Will Speak for America?, which includes fiction, essays, photos, cartoons, and poetry from 43 contributing authors. The anthology was compiled just before the 2016 Presidential inaugeration of Donald Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hannah Pittard is the author of four novels. Her most recent, Visible Empire,was an Amazon Editors' Pick for Summer Fiction, an IndieNext List Pick, a New York Times "New and Noteworthy" Selection, an O Magazine Book of Summer, and one of Southern Living's Best New Books of Summer. Her previous novels include Listen to me, The Fates will Find Their Way and Reunion. She directs the MFA program in c...

Chuck Palahniuk is the author of novels, novellas, graphic novels, journalism, essays, and even a coloring book.  He is best known for his 1996 novel Fight Club.  His new novel is called Adjustment Day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lydia Millet is an American novelist and conservationist. She has written twelve works of fiction and four books for young adults. Her third novel, My Happy Life, won the 2003 PEN Center USA Award for Fiction, and she has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize as well as a Guggenheim fellow, among other honors. Her latest work is a short story collection called Fight No More. Learn more about your...

James Wood has been a staff writer and book critic at The New Yorker since 2007. His critical essays are collected in The Broken Estate: Essays on Literature and Belief; The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and the Novel, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and The Fun Stuff: And Other Essays. He is also the author of a novels Upstate and The Book Against God and a stud...

A.M. Homes most recent book is Days of Awe, a collection of short stories.  She is the author of the novels, This Book Will Save Your Life, which won the 2013 Orange/Women’s Prize for Fiction, Music For Torching, The End of Alice, In a Country of Mothers, and Jack, as well as the short-story collections, Things You Should Know and The Safety of Objects, the best selling memoir, The Mistress's Daug...

Howard Norman is the author of I Hate to Leave This Beautiful Place. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

J. Courtney Sullivan is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Commencement, Maine, The Engagements, and Saints For All Occasions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Grann is a NY Times bestselling author.  His books include The Lost City of Z, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, and Killers of the Flower Moon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices