First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing

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

Tom Rachman is the author of four works of fiction: his bestselling debut, The Imperfectionists , which was translated into 25 languages; the critically acclaimed follow-up, The Rise & Fall of Great Powers ; a satirical audiobook-in-stories Basket of Deplorables ; and his most recent novel set in the art world, The Italian Teacher.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donna Masini's latest collection of poems, 4:30 Movie, an elegy for her sister, explores personal loss, global violence, the ways in which movies shape our imaginations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris Offutt is the author of two short story collections, three memoirs, and two novels including his most recent, Country Dark. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tim Kreider is an essayist and cartoonist.  His latest book is called I Wrote This Because I Love You. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin Powers is the author of A Shout in the Ruins, The Yellow Birds and the poetry collection, Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting.  He was born and raised in Richmond, VA. In 2004 and 2005 he served with the U.S. Army in Mosul and Tal Afar, Iraq. He studied English at Virginia Commonwealth University after his honorable discharge and received an M.F.A. in Poetry from the Michener Cente...

Curtis Sittenfeld is the bestselling author of five novels: Prep, The Man of My Dreams, American Wife, Sisterland, and Eligible. Her first story collection is called You Think It, I’ll Say It. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarah Henstra is the author of The Red Word and Mad Miss Mimic. She is is a professor of English literature at Ryerson University in Toronto. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robert Kurson is an American author, best known for his 2004 bestselling book, Shadow Divers, the true story of two Americans who discovered a World War II German U-boat sunk 60 miles off the coast of New Jersey. His new book, Rocket Men, tells the story of Apollo 8, the first manned NASA mission to the moon in 1968. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anna Quindlen is a novelist and journalist whose work has appeared on fiction, nonfiction, and self-help bestseller lists. She is the author of nine novels: Object Lessons, One True Thing, Black and Blue, Blessings, Rise and Shine, Every Last One, Still Life with Bread Crumbs, Miller’s Valley, and Alternate Side. Her memoir Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, published in 2012, was a #1 New York Time...

Yang Huang grew up in Jiangsu, China and came to the U.S. to study computer science. While working as an engineer, she studied literature and pursued writing, her passion since childhood. Her collection of linked family stories My Old Faithful won the Juniper Prize for Fiction. Her debut novel Living Treasures won the Nautilus Book Award silver medal in fiction. Learn more about your ad choices. V...

Hermione grew up in south London and graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2007 with a double first in English Literature. After working on the Observer’s New Review section for a few years she moved to New York and has lived in Brooklyn since 2010. She writes about culture, especially books, film, music and gender, for the Guardian, The New Yorker, The New York Times, the TLS and others....

Zachary Lazar is the author of five books, including Sway, Evening’s Empire: The Story of My Father’s Murder,  I Pity the Poor Immigrant, and Vengeance. I Pity the Poor Immigrant was a New York Times Notable Book of 2014. Sway was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Award and an Editor’s Choice at the New York Times Book Review, as well as a best book of 2008 in the Los Angeles Times, Rolli...

Tara Westover is an American author living in the UK. Born in Idaho to a father opposed to public education, she never attended school. She spent her days working in her father's junkyard or stewing herbs for her mother, a self-taught herbalist and midwife. She was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jenny Offill is the author of Dept. of Speculation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steven Schwartz is the author of Little Raw Souls, Therapy, and Madagascar: New and Selected Stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Karen Thompson Walker was born and raised in San Diego, California, where The Age of Miracles is set. She studied English and creative writing at UCLA, where she wrote for the UCLA Daily Bruin. After college, she worked as a newspaper reporter in the San Diego area before moving to New York City to attend the Columbia University MFA program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adc...