Problems without Solutions

Elif Batuman’s first novel, The Idiot, was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in the United Kingdom. She is also the author of Either/Or, which was a New York Times Notable Book of 2022, and The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, which was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism. Batuman has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2010 and holds a PhD in comparative literature from Stanford University.

Cindy Cheung most recently appeared onstage in Alex Lin’s LAOWANG at Primary Stages, directed by Joshua Brody, and William Inge’s Bus Stop at Classic Stage Company with Transport Group and NAATCO. Her additional theater credits include The Antiquities and Catch As Catch Can at Playwrights Horizons, Coach Coach with Clubbed Thumb, Merry Me at the New York Theatre Workshop, and Golden Shield with the Manhattan Theater Club. Cheung’s screen credits include the forthcoming American Classic, Dying for Sex, The Sinner, The Flight Attendant, Billions, Thirteen Reasons Why, High Maintenance, Mistress America, Obvious Child, and Lady in the Water. Cheung was a 14-year steering committee member of the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC), which received a Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre and an Obie Award Special Citation for Advocacy in the Field of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. She has an MFA from A.C.T. and a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from UCLA.

Claire Danes is a multiple award–winning actress and producer. For eight seasons, Danes starred as Carrie Mathison in Showtime’s Homeland, garnering her two Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a SAG Award for Best Actress. Danes currently stars in Netflix’s The Beast in Me opposite Matthew Rhys, which she also executive produced. Previously, Danes starred in FX’s limited series Fleishman Is in Trouble, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award, Golden Globe, and Critics’ Choice Award for her performance. Danes received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Temple Grandin in HBO’s bio-pic Temple Grandin, winning the Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie. Danes is well known for her breakout role as Angela Chase in Winnie Holzman’s series My So-Called Life, for which she won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Drama and was nominated for an Emmy in the same category. Her additional recent credits include starring in Steven Soderbergh’s Full Circle on HBO and Apple TV+’s The Essex Serpent opposite Tom Hiddleston. Upcoming, she is set to reteam with Winnie Holzman to star and executive produce The Applebaum Curse for HBO.

Jesse Eisenberg is an actor, filmmaker, and writer. He wrote, directed, and starred in the buddy comedy A Real Pain, which earned him the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay and an Academy Award nomination in the same category. In 2022, he made his film directorial debut with the black comedy When You Finish Saving the World. He is a regular contributor for TheNew Yorker and McSweeney’s and author of the plays Asuncion, The Revisionist, and The Spoils, which won the Theatre Visions Fund Award, and the short story collection Bream Gives Me Hiccups. Eisenberg’s numerous acting credits include The Social Network, Now You See Me, Adventureland, The Squid and the Whale, The Double, The End of the Tour, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Cafe Society, The Hummingbird Project, the Justice League franchise, Zombieland: Double Tap, Resistance, Manodrome, Sasquatch Sunset, Fleishman Is in Trouble, and Now You See Me: Now You Don’t. Forthcoming screen projects include Secret Mall Apartment and Bream Gives Me Hiccups.

Esther Freud trained as an actress before writing her first novel, Hideous Kinky, which was short-listed for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and made into a film starring Kate Winslet. After publishing her second novel, Peerless Flats, she was chosen as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists. Her other books include The Sea House, Lucky Break, Mr Mac and Me, I Couldn’t Love You More, and My Sister and Other Lovers, which was published in August 2025.

Lacey Lamar is Amber Ruffin's beautiful big sister and New York Times bestselling author of You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories of Racism, written with sister Amber. She has worked in healthcare and human services for more than 25 years, 13 of those with troubled young women in her community. She volunteers her time and resources to marginalized people in any way she can. Lacey loves the challenge of creating safe spaces for the celebration of Nerd/African-American culture.

Amber Ruffin is an Emmy, Tony, and WGA Award–nominated writer and performer for NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers. She hosted the Emmy, Critics' Choice, and WGA Award–nominated The Amber Ruffin Show on Peacock. Ruffin was the first African American female to write for a late-night network talk show in the U.S. She has written and performed on shows such as Detroiters, A Black Lady Sketch Show, and Drunk History. Ruffin has written for the Emmys, Golden Globes, and Tonys. She was previously a performer at Boom Chicago in Amsterdam and iO Theater and Second City in Chicago. Ruffin is a New York Times bestselling author, along with her sister Lacey Lamar, of You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories of Racism. She co-wrote the most Tony-nominated musical of 2022, Some Like it Hot and wrote the book for the Broadway revival of The Wiz. Ruffin currently stars on the comedy news trivia show Have I Got News for You and co-creator of the new musical Bigfoot!, which is currently running at the Manhattan Theatre Club.

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

“The Board,” by Elif Batuman, as published in Electric Literature (Issue No. 629, June 3, 2024) and collected in A Cage Went in Search of a Bird: Ten Kafkaesque Stories (Catapult, 2024). Copyright © 2024 by Elif Batuman. Used by permission of The Wylie Agency, LLC and the author.

“My Little Sister Texts Me with Her Problems,” by Jesse Eisenberg, from Bream Gives Me Hiccups: and Other Stories (Grove Press, 2015). Copyright © 2015 by Jesse Eisenberg. Used by permission of Creative Artists Agency.

“Transference,” by Esther Freud, from Reader, I Married Him: Stories Inspired by Jane Eyre (William Morrow, 2016). Copyright © 2016 by Esther Freud. Used by permission of C&W Agency and the author.