Donald Barthelme (1931 – 1989) was the author of more than 20 works of fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature, including Come Back, Dr. Caligari; City Life; Snow White; and The Dead Father. Barthelme was a longtime contributor to The New Yorker and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rea Award for the Short Story, and served as director of PEN and the Authors Guild.
Cindy Cheung currently appears on season four of The Sinner as Stephanie Lam. Her television and film credits include The Flight Attendant, Billions, Thirteen Reasons Why, High Maintenance, FBI, Blindspot, The Good Fight, Blue Bloods, New Amsterdam, House of Cards, Homeland, Mistress America,Obvious Child, The Light of the Moon,The Sunlit Night, Children of Invention,Lady in the Water, and Robot Stories. On stage Cheung has been seen in Tiny Beautiful Things, Log Cabin, Iowa, The Great Immensity, Middletown, The Seagull, Antigone, The Sugar House at the Edge of the Wilderness, Sides: The Fear Is Real…, and her self-penned solo show, Speak Up Connie, directed by BD Wong for the All For One Solo Festival.
Nate Corddry is an actor, comedian, and writer who has recently been featured on the television series Fosse/Verdon, Mindhunter, For All Mankind, and Perry Mason. Additional film and television credits include Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip; United States of Tara; Harry’s Law; Childrens Hospital; TRON: Uprising; St. Vincent; The Heat; Mom; The Hindenburg Explodes!; The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; The Circle; New Girl; Ghostbusters; Standing Up, Falling Down; and as a correspondent on The Daily Show.
Roald Dahl (1916-1990) was born in Wales of Norwegian parents. After establishing himself as a writer for adults, Dahl began writing children's stories in 1960 while living in England with his family. His first stories were written as entertainment for his own children, to whom many of his books are dedicated. With more than 40 million Roald Dahl books in print in the U.S. alone, Dahl is considered one of the most beloved storytellers of our time. Although he passed away in 1990, his popularity continues to increase as his fantastic novels, including James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The BFG, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, delight an ever-growing legion of fans.
Roxane Gay is the author of numerous essay collections and works of fiction, including Ayiti, An Untamed State, Bad Feminist, Difficult Women, and Hunger, as well as the comic series World of Wakanda. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The Best American Short Stories, McSweeney’s, Tin House, The New York Times, Rumpus, Oxford American, Salon, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Time. She is the founder of Tiny Hardcore Press and founding editor of PANK, and editor of collections including Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture and the 2018 edition of TheBest American Short Stories. She is currently an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Purdue University. Recent works include Graceful Burdens, The Banks with artist Ming Doyle, the graphic novel The Sacrifice of Darkness, and as editor of The Selected Works of Audre Lorde.
Catherine O’Hara is currently best known for her multi-award-winning portrayal of Moira Rose on Schitt's Creek. She was an original cast member on SCTV and has appeared in numerous Christopher Guest mocumentaries, including For Your Consideration, A Mighty Wind, Best in Show, and Waiting for Guffman. Additional film and television credits include After Hours, Beetlejuice, Home Alone, Away We Go, Temple Grandin, What Lives Inside, and A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Madeleine Thien is the author of the story collection Simple Recipes and three novels, Certainty, Dogs at the Perimeter, which was shortlisted for Berlin’s International Literature Prize and won the Frankfurt Book Fair’s 2015 LiBeraturpreis, and Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which won the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize, the 2016 Governor-General’s Literary Award for Fiction, an Edward Stanford Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize, the 2017 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, and The Folio Prize 2017. The novel was named a New York Times Critics’ Top Book of 2016 and longlisted for a Carnegie Medal.
CREDITS
“Three Great Meals” by Donald Barthelme. From The Teachings of Don B. (Vintage, 1998). First appeared in The New Yorker (June 1, 1987). Copyright © 1987 by Donald Barthelme. Used by permission of The Wylie Agency, LLC.
"Simple Recipes" by Madeleine Thien, from Simple Recipes (Little, Brown, June 2002). Copyright (c) 2001 by Madeleine Thien. Used by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
“Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl. Copyright © 1953 by Roald Dahl. First published in Harper’s Magazine (September 1953). Used by permission of David Higham Associates.
