Jelani Alladin starred in Showtime’s Golden Globe and Critics Choice–nominated limited series Fellow Travelers and has appeared in Blue Bloods, The Walking Dead: World Beyond, Law & Order: SVU, and FBI. In film, Alladin starred in Netflix’s Tick, Tick…Boom! and MGM’s Respect. On stage, he was last seen in the title role in Public Works’ musical adaptation of Disney’s Hercules. Alladin made his Broadway debut starring as Kristoff in Disney’s Frozen, earning a Drama Desk nomination for Best Leading Actor and a Drama League nomination for Distinguished Performance. Additional credits include audiobooks for the New York Times notable My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson and Boys Come First by Aaron Foley. His upcoming projects include the independent feature Beneath the Fold and Disney+’s live-action prequel series Beauty & The Beast. Alladin is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of The Arts.
Shirley Jackson (1916 – 1965) was an American author whose works include the novels The Road Through the Wall, The Haunting of Hill House, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and the short story collections The Lottery and Other Stories and Dark Tales. Her stories have been widely anthologized and featured in TheBest American Short Stories and the O. Henry Prize Stories, and she was twice awarded the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Short Story. The Haunting of Hill House was a finalist for The National Book Award and has been made into two feature films, a play, and most recently, a television series on Netflix. The Shirley Jackson Award was established in 2007 to honor outstanding achievement in the genres of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.
Walter Dean Myers (1937 – 2014) was an award-winning writer of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for young people from Harlem. He received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for his contribution to young adult literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, two Newbery Honors, and was a three-time National Book Award Finalist and five-time recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award. His many titles include Monster, 145th Street: Short Stories, Hoops, Slam, Bad Boy: A Memoir, Malcolm X: A Fire Burning Brightly, Now Is Your Time!, and Fallen Angels. In 2012, Myers was named the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.
Academy Award–nominated actress Amy Ryan is known for her work on the big and small screen alike, as well as her Tony-nominated work on stage. She can be seen in the Apple TV+ series Sugar, opposite Colin Farrell; Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building; and the Apple film Wolfs, opposite George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Some notable film credits include Beau Is Afraid, Worth, Birdman, Clear History, Lost Girls, Late Night, Strange but True, Gone Baby Gone, Bridge of Spies, Win Win, Jack Goes Boating, Capote, Green Zone, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Central Intelligence, and Keane. Her television credits include The Wire, The Office, In Treatment, Broad City, and High Maintenance. Amy has worked in the theater for more than 25 years on and off-Broadway and in London. Her work onstage earned her an OBIE award for her performance in LOVE LOVE LOVE, and three Tony nominations for A Streetcar Named Desire, Uncle Vanya, and Doubt.
Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Female Persuasion, The Interestings, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, and The Wife. She is a faculty member in the Creative Writing and Literature Program at The Lichtenstein Center at Stony Brook University, where she co-founded and co-directs BookEnds, a one-year, non-credit intensive for emerging novelists. Wolitzer, who was the guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 2017, is the radio and podcast host of Symphony Space’s Selected Shorts.
CREDITS
“The Beast is in the Labyrinth,” in Places I Never Meant to Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers, Ed. Judy Blume (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1999). Copyright © 1999 by Walter Dean Myers. Used by permission of DeFiore & Company and the Estate of Walter Dean Myers.
“The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, from The Lottery and Other Stories (Picador Modern Classics, 2019). First published in The New Yorker (June 26, 1948). Copyright © 1948 by Shirley Jackson. Courtesy the heirs of Shirley Jackson.
