Robert Coover is a recipient of the 1987 Rea Award for the Short Story. His first novel, The Origin of the Brunists, won the 1966 William Faulkner Award. Additional works include the short story collections Pricksongs and Descants and Going for a Beer, a collection of plays: A Theological Position, and the novels The Public Burning, Spanking the Maid, Gerald’s Party, Pinocchio in Venice, John’s Wife, Ghost Town, Briar Rose, Huck Out West, and Open House. Coover is the T.B. Stowell Professor Emeritus in Literary Arts at Brown University.
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 40 plays (a dozen on Broadway), scores of films and TV shows, and won 2 Emmys, 2 Tonys, and a Grammy. Best known for her role as Miranda on HBO’s Sex and the City, she currently co-stars in the sequel series And Just Like That… and in Julian Fellowes’ The Gilded Age (also on HBO). Nixon appeared on numerous "Best Actress of 2018" lists for her portrayal of Emily Dickinson in Terrence Davies' much-lauded film A Quiet Passion. In 2018 she also ran for Governor of New York State, putting issues of economic, racial, and gender equality front and center. She and her wife, Christine Marinoni, live in Manhattan and have 3 children—Sam, Charlie, and Max.
Cynthia Ozick, a recipient of the PEN/Nabokov Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for fiction, a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and a National Book Critics Circle Award for her essays, is the author of Trust, The Messiah of Stockholm, The Shawl, and The Puttermesser Papers, and many other works of fiction and nonfiction. Her collected works were recently published in In a Yellow Wood: Selected Stories and Essays by Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series.
V. S. Pritchett (1900 – 1997) was knighted in 1975 for his service to literature in Great Britain. He was also the recipient of the Royal Society of Literature Award, and was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1968. Some of his short stories collections include The Spanish Virginand Other Stories, The Sailor, Sense of Humor and Other Stories, and A Careless Widow and Other Stories. Among his many works of non-fiction are The Offensive Traveller, The Myth Makers: Literary Essays, and At Home and Abroad. The Pritchett Century: A Selection of the Best by V. S. Pritchett was published posthumously.
Isaiah Sheffer (1935 – 2012) was a writer, director, cultural entrepreneur, and impresario. He was co-founder of Symphony Space in New York City, served as the organization’s Artistic Director until 2010 and Founding Artistic Director thereafter, and was widely known as the host of Selected Shorts. In addition, he was the creator of Wall to Wall and Bloomsday on Broadway, as well as the co-creator of The Thalia Follies political cabaret.
Lois Smith is an actress whose film career began with East of Eden and includes Fried Green Tomatoes, Dead Man Walking, Twister, Minority Report, Lady Bird, Uncle Frank, The French Dispatch, The Gettysburg Address, Mack & Rita, and The Uninvited. Her television credits include Grace and Frankie, Younger, Sneaky Pete, The Son, On Becoming a God in Central Florida, Ray DonovanGossip Girl, This Fool, and Law & Order: Organized Crime. Smith is a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. She was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame, and in 2013, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Obie Award for excellence in Off-Broadway Performances. Additionally, Smith has been honored with Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Outer Critics Circle awards and the 2021 Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Inheritance.
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, mostly 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.
CREDITS
“Going for a Beer,” by Robert Coover. First published in The New Yorker (March 14, 2011) and collected in Going For a Beer: Selected Short Fictions (W. W. Norton & Company, 2018). Copyright © 2011 by Robert Coover. Used by permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc.
“The Shawl,” by Cynthia Ozick. First published in The New Yorker (May 26, 1980) and collected in The Shawl (Vintage, 1990). Copyright © 1980 by Cynthia Ozick. Used by permission of the Melanie Jackson Agency, LLC.
“The Ladder,” by V. S. Pritchett, first published in The New Yorker (November 5, 1949). Collected in A Century of Fiction in The New Yorker: 1925-2025 (Knopf, 2025). Copyright © 1949 by The Estate of V. S. Pritchett. Adapted version of the text used by permission of Peters Fraser + Dunlop Literary Agents on behalf of The Estate of V. S. Pritchett.
