It Takes Two

Elizabeth Crane is the author of four collections of short stories, Turf,When the Messenger Is Hot, All This Heavenly Glory, and You Must Be This Happy to Enter as well as two novels, We Only Know So Much and The History of Great Things. Her work has been translated into several languages and has been featured in numerous publications and on Selected Shorts. Crane is a recipient of the Chicago Public Library 21st Century Award. Her work has been adapted for the stage by Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater company. She teaches in the UCR-Palm Desert low-residency MFA program. We Only Know So Much has been adapted for film, and her memoir This Story Will Change is forthcoming from Counterpoint in 2022.

Lauren Groff is the author of the novels The Monsters of Templeton, shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers, Delicate Edible Birds, a collection of stories, and Arcadia, a New York Times Notable Book, winner of the Medici Book Club Prize, and finalist for the L.A. Times Book Award. Her third novel, Fates and Furies, was a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Kirkus Award. Her most recent collection of stories, Florida, won the Story Prize. Her work has appeared in journals including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, Tin House, One Story, and Ploughshares, and in the anthologies The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, and five editions of the Best American Short Stories. In 2017, she was named by Granta magazine as one of the Best of Young American Novelists of her generation. In 2018, she received a Guggenheim fellowship in Fiction and a Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Rachel Khong’s debut novel, Goodbye, Vitamin, was honored with the California Book Award for First Fiction; it was also named a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist for First Fiction and Best Book of the Year by NPR, O magazine, Vogue, Esquire, Huffington Post, Nylon, and Booklist, among other publications. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Tin House, and The New York Times. She previously served as executive editor of Lucky Peach. In 2018, Khong founded The Ruby, a work and event space for women and nonbinary writers and artists in San Francisco’s Mission district.

Cynthia Nixon made her film debut in Little Darlings at 12 years old and her Broadway debut at 14 in The Philadelphia Story. Since then she’s appeared in more than 40 plays, scores of films and television shows, and received 2 Emmys, 2 Tonys, and a Grammy Award. She is best known for her role as Miranda on HBO’s Sex and the City. In 2017, Nixon alternated the roles of Regina and Birdie with Laura Linney in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes on Broadway, winning her 2nd Tony Award. She also appeared on numerous "best actress of 2018" lists for her portrayal of American poet Emily Dickinson in Terrence Davies' much-lauded film A Quiet Passion. Also in 2018 she ran for Governor of New York state. Currently, she can be seen in Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix series Ratched opposite Sarah Paulson and will star in Julian Fellowes’ The Gilded Age. Nixon spends a good portion of her off-time fighting for funding for New York public schools, abortion rights, and LGBT equality. She and her wife, Christine, have 3 children: Sam, Charlie, and Max.

Hettienne Park is an actress and writer best known for her roles on The Outsider and Hannibal. Additional screen credits include The OA, Blacklist, High Maintenance, Bride Wars, Damages, The Good Wife, Young Adult, Blindspot, and most recently, 9-1-1: Lonestar and Prodigal Son. Park appeared on Broadway in Seminar and off-Broadway in The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures; her stage work earned her a Theatre World Award, honoring her outstanding debuts on and off-Broadway. Park’s forthcoming projects include Gossip Girl on HBO Max and Netflix’s Don’t Look Up, written and directed by Adam McKay.

Kate Walsh is widely known for her starring role as Dr. Addison Montgomery in the ABC dramas Grey’s Anatomy / Private Practice as well as Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, The Umbrella Academy, and Emily in Paris. Most recently Walsh co-starred with Liam Neeson in the film Honest Thief and with Donal Logue in Sometime Other than Now. Walsh is an advocate and voice for change. She is passionate about carbon offsets, climate change, as well as ocean and marine life conservation. She has always been a strong voice in the fight for women’s rights, serving as a member of Planned Parenthood’s Board of Advocates for more than 10 years, as well as being an ambassador for Operation Smile. She created and founded the award-winning fragrance, Boyfriend Perfume, and continues to grow and expand the company.

Meg Wolitzer’s latest novel, The Female Persuasion, was published in 2018 and became an immediate New York Times bestseller. Her previous novels include The Interestings, The Uncoupling, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, and The Wife, which was adapted to film in 2018, starring Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce. She has also published novels for young readers. She has taught creative writing at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Columbia University, Skidmore College, the University of Houston, Boston University, and Barnard College, and currently teaches at Stony Brook Southampton. Wolitzer served as guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 2017.

Credits

“Once” by Lauren Groff, from McSweeney’s Issue 49 (May 2017). Copyright © 2017 by Lauren Groff. Used by permission of The Clegg Agency.

“Slow and Steady,” by Rachel Khong, from The Cut (April 2020). Copyright © 2020 by Rachel Khong. Used by permission of Janklow & Nesbit Associates.

“Something Shiny” by Elizabeth Crane, from When The Messenger Is Hot (Little, Brown and Company, 2003). Copyright © 2003 by Elizabeth Crane. Used by permission of Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, Inc.