Almost Like Love

Mia Dillon is a Tony-nominated stage actress whose Broadway credits include Our Town, The Miser, The Corn Is Green, Hay Fever, Agnes of God, Once a Catholic, Crimes of the Heart, and Da. She has worked extensively off-Broadway and regionally from San Diego to Dublin, including her most recent appearance at The Hartford Stage in The Engagement Party. Previously at Hartford Stage she appeared in the world premiere of Seder, as well as Cloud Nine and A Song at Twilight. Her work has been honored with the CT Critics Circle Award, a Drama Desk nomination, the Clarence Derwent Award, a Barrymore Award nomination, and a Dramalogue Award. Film and TV appearances include all three Law & Orders, Brain Dead, The Jury, Mary and Rhoda, Gods and Generals, The Money Pit, Isn't It Delicious, Ordinary World, All Good Things, and Never Rarely Sometimes. Upcoming projects include Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.

Pam Houston is the author of the memoir Deep Creek: Finding Hope In The High Country, as well as two novels, Contents May Have Shifted and Sight Hound, two collections of short stories, Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat, and a collection of essays, A Little More About Me. Her stories have been selected for volumes of The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, Best American Travel Writing, and Best American Short Stories of the Century, among other anthologies. She is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA Award for contemporary fiction, the Evil Companions Literary Award and several teaching awards. Houston teaches in the Low Rez MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, is Professor of English at UC Davis, and co-founder and creative director of the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers.

Jennifer Ikeda’s stage appearances, both on and off-Broadway, include Titus Andronicus, Macbeth, As You Like It with the Public Theater, Vietgone, Top Girls, Linda with MTC, and most recently, King Philip’s Head… with Clubbed Thumb. She has also been featured in the television shows Blue Bloods, New Amsterdam, Maniac, Tell Me a Story, Dash & Lily, and the films Advantageous, Swing, among others. Ikeda has narrated dozens of audiobooks and has been honored with two Audie Awards. Upcoming projects include the short film Ode to Psyche.

Lisa Ko’s first novel, The Leavers, was a national bestseller that won the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and was a finalist for both the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2018 PEN/Hemingway Award. Her short fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories and her essays and non- fiction in the New York Times, the Believer, and elsewhere. She lives in New York City.

Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Female Persuasion, The Interestings, The Ten-Year Nap, and The Wife, which was adapted to film in 2018, starring Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce. She was the guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 2017, and has also published books for young readers, most recently a picture book, Millions of Maxes. Wolitzer is a faculty member in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton, where she co-founded and co-directs BookEnds, a one-year, non-credit intensive in the novel. She is excited to be the new host of the literary radio show and podcast Selected Shorts.

CREDITS

"How to Talk to a Hunter," by Pam Houston. Copyright © 1989 by Pam Houston. First published in Quarterly West. Collected in The Best American Short Stories 1990 (Houghton Mifflin), and Cowboys Are My Weakness by Pam Houston (Washington Square Press). Used by permission of Darhansoff & Verrill Literary Agency.

“Pat + Sam,” by Lisa Ko. First published in Copper Nickel (Number 21, Fall 2015). Copyright © 2015 by Lisa Ko. Used by permission of the author.