Ivan Hernandez recently finished a run as Abraham Lincoln in the new musical 3 Summers of Lincoln at the La Jolla Playhouse. Broadway credits include Larry Murphy in Dear Evan Hansen and Billy Flynn in Chicago. Additional New York credits include Signor Naccarelli in The Light in the Piazza at City Center, The Wolf/Cinderella’s Prince in Into the Woods at the Delacorte Theatre, Sal in The Capeman (Delacorte), Mitch in Yank! at the York Theatre, and Fred in Romantic Poetry at Manhattan Theatre Club. Audiences also know Hernandez as Franklyn from the HBO Max series And Just Like That… and as Andrés in the Netflix series Never Have I Ever. Additional television credits include Elsbeth, The Rookie, Claws, Criminal Minds, NCIS,Mom, Scandal, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Devious Maids, and Law & Order: SVU.
Cynthia Nixon made her film debut in Little Darlings at 12 and her Broadway debut at 14 in The Philadelphia Story. Since then she’s appeared in more than 40 plays (a dozen on Broadway), scores of films and TV shows, and won 2 Emmys, 2 Tonys, and a Grammy. She is best known for her role as Miranda on HBO’s Sex and the City, and in the sequel series And Just Like That…. Next year she will start production on Season 4 of Julian Fellowes’ The Gilded Age (also on HBO). Nixon appeared on numerous "Best Actress of 2017" lists for her portrayal of Emily Dickinson in Terrence Davies' much-lauded film A Quiet Passion. In 2018 she ran for Governor of New York State, putting issues of economic, racial, and gender equality front and center, and she was a part of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Inaugural Committee this winter. She and her wife, Christine Marinoni, live in Manhattan and have 3 children—Sam, Charlie, and Max. Nixon recently starred alongside June Squibb in Marjorie Prime on Broadway.
Julian Robles is a Mexican (-American) writer raised in California. His work has been published in AGNI, The Drift, Post Road, and Washington Square Review. He is managing editor of poetry.onl.
Jessica Treadway is the author of four novels and three story collections, including one that received the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. “An Early Departure” is part of her fourth collection, I Felt My Life With Both My Hands, forthcoming next year from Cornerstone Press. Treadway is a longtime faculty member in the creative writing programs at Emerson College in Boston.
Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Female Persuasion, The Interestings, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, and The Wife, among other novels. A musical of The Interestings is in development. Wolitzer was the guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 2017, and also writes books for young readers. She is a faculty member in the Creative Writing Program at Stony Brook University, where she co-founded and co-directs BookEnds, a yearlong intensive for emerging novelists.
CREDITS
“An Early Departure,” by Jessica Treadway, from The Best American Short Stories 2025 (Mariner Books, 2025). First published in Five Points (Vol. 23, No. 2, Fall 2024). Copyright © 2024 by Jessica Treadway. Used by permission of the author.
“Third Room,” by Julian Robles, from The Best American Short Stories 2025 (Mariner Books, 2025). First published in The Drift (Issue 12, February 15, 2024). Copyright © 2024 by Julian Robles. Adapted version of the text used by permission of the author.
