First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing

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. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 year by the Washington Post, Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, Publishers Weekly, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Apple, and others; and named one of Janet Maslin’s ten favorite books of the year in the New York Times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 and New American Stories. Since 2000 he has taught on the faculty at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of three awards from the BCALA. Praise Song for the Butterflies is her latest novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 at Vassar College. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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