Off the Leash

Lyman Frank Baum (1856 – 1919) raised fancy poultry, sold fireworks, managed an opera house, opened a department store, and edited a newspaper before finally turning to writing. In 1900, he published his best-known book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Eventually, he wrote fifty-five novels, including thirteen Oz books, four “lost” novels, eighty-three short stories, more than two hundred poems, an unknown number of scripts, and many miscellaneous writings.

Emma Brewer, a Production Manager at Penguin Random House, is a satire and fiction writer whose work has been featured in The New Yorker, McSweeney's, The Cut, Epiphany Magazine, and elsewhere. She lives in Vermont with her family and their very special bulldog-chihuahua-dachshund, Zelda.

Ana Gasteyer, the iconic comedic actress, has made us laugh for countless years. She was recently seen in Once Upon a Mattress on Broadway as Queen Aggravain, and lit up the small screen as Katherine Hastings in Justin Spitzer’s critically acclaimed NBC workplace comedy American Auto. You can see her on Apple TV+ reuniting with Maya Rudolph in season 2 of Loot. Gasteyer wrote, executive produced, and starred in the hilarious holiday film parody A Clüsterfünke Christmas for Comedy Central with Rachel Dratch. Gasteyer is perhaps best known for her iconic work on Saturday Night Live. Some of her most celebrated characters include Martha Stewart, Celine Dion, Margaret from NPR, and music teacher Bobby Culp. Her additional television credits include Lady Dynamite, People of Earth, The Goldbergs, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Good Wife, Suburgatory, and Girls. She also starred in two live musicals for Fox: Grease Live! as Principal McGee and A Christmas Story Live! as Mrs. Schwartz. Gasteyer stunned judges on FOX’s The Masked Singer as The Tree. On the big screen, Gasteyer can be seen in Mean Girls, Robot & Frank, What Women Want, The Women, Happiest Season, and Wine Country. She will next be seen starring opposite Lilly Singh in the indie comedy Doin’ It. On stage, Gasteyer starred in the Encores! Off-Center production of A New Brain, and has stunned on Broadway with celebrated performances in The Rocky Horror Show, The Royal Family, The Three Penny Opera, and as Elphaba in Wicked. She also played Fanny Brice in Funny Girl at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, Fosca in Stephen Sondheim’s Passion at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and Ms. Hannigan in the beloved classic Annie at the Hollywood Bowl. Gasteyer regularly tours with her cabaret show, featuring songs from her albums I’m Hip! and sugar & booze.

David Means is the author of several short-story collections, including Two Nurses, Smoking; Instructions for a Funeral; The Spot, a New York Times notable book of the year; Assorted Fire Events, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction; The Secret Goldfish; and the novel Hystopia, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and other publications. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2013, Means teaches at Vassar College.

Javier Muñoz is best known for starring and co-creating the role of Alexander Hamilton as part of the original cast of Hamilton on Broadway. He got his break starring as Usnavi in In the Heights on Broadway. He recently starred in the world premiere adaptation of the Emmy-winning series Schmigadoon! at the Kennedy Center and in Galileo at Berkeley Repertory Theater, opposite Raúl Esparza, and the pre-Broadway run of the musical The Devil Wears Prada, in the role of Nigel Owens, with music by Elton John. Muñoz starred in the dark comedy indie feature Monuments, the indie feature Love Reconsidered, and Three Months on Paramount+. He voices a lead character in the Disney Jr. animated series Eureka! Additional screen credits include recurring on Shadowhunters, Blindspot, and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. Muñoz is also an outspoken activist for USAID and LGBTQ+ rights.

Jeremy Shamos was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in the Pulitzer Prize–winning play Clybourne Park, for which he also received Lucille Lortel Award and Drama League Award nominations. His additional stage appearances include Broadway productions of Steve Martin’s Meteor Shower, Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, Richard Greenberg’s The Assembled Parties, and David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, as well as off-Broadway productions of the original Gutenberg! The Musical, If I Forget (Drama Desk nomination), Animals Out of Paper (Drama Desk nomination), The Qualms, The Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged), Dinner With Friends (Lucille Lortel Award), Engaged, for which he received the Obie Award, and Stephen Sondheim’s final musical, Here We Are. His work on film and television has provided the opportunity to collaborate on many acclaimed features, including Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Bad Education, The Big Sick, Birdman, and many prestigious series including The Handmaid’s Tale, Better Call Saul, Succession, Dead Ringers, Nurse Jackie, and Fosse/Verdon. For his recurring roles as part of the ensembles of both The Gilded Age and Only Murders in the Building, he earned SAG Award nominations. An MFA graduate of New York University, Shamos resides with his family in Brooklyn.

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. The Interestings is currently being adapted as a musical, with a book by Sarah Ruhl and music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles. 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

“Think You Deserve Companionship? Apply to Adopt a Dog Today!” by Emma Brewer, as published in The New Yorker (April 5, 2021). Copyright © 2021 by Emma Brewer. Used by permission of the author.

“The Glass Dog,” by L. Frank Baum, from American Fairy Tales (George M. Hill Company, 1901). In the public domain.

“Clementine, Carmelita, Dog,” by David Means, from Two Nurses, Smoking (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022). First published in Granta (Issue 152, July 30, 2020) and collected in The Best American Short Stories 2021 (Mariner Books, 2021). Copyright © 2020 by David Means. Abridged version of the text used by permission of the author and The Wylie Agency, LLC.