Robert Coover is a recipient of the 1987 Rea Award for the Short Story. His first novel, The Origin of the Brunists, won the 1966 William Faulkner Award. Additional works include the short story collections Pricksongs and Descants and Going for a Beer, a collection of plays: A Theological Position, and the novels The Public Burning, Spanking the Maid, Gerald’s Party, Pinocchio in Venice, John’s Wife, Ghost Town, Briar Rose, Huck Out West, and Open House. Coover is the T.B. Stowell Professor Emeritus in Literary Arts at Brown University.
Cristina Henríquez is the author of The Book of Unknown Americans, a New York Times Notable Book that was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Henríquez is also the author of The World in Half and Come Together, Fall Apart: A Novella and Stories. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Oxford American, The American Scholar, and elsewhere. Henríquez was a 2020 Fiction judge for the National Book Awards. She earned her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her novel The Great Cut, about the building of the Panama Canal, was published in March 2024.
Maryann Plunkett is a Tony, Obie, and Drama Desk Award–winning actress. Her extensive theater career includes Richard Nelson’s critically acclaimed cycle The Rhinebeck Panorama, which includes the Apple Family tetralogy, the Gabriels trilogy, and the Michaels duo. On Broadway, she has been featured in Agnes of God, Sunday in the Park with George, Me and My Girl, for which she received a Tony Award, The Crucible, St. Joan, and A Man for All Seasons. Her film and television credits include Dr Death, Manifest, Chicago Med, Bull, House of Cards, The Knick, Om City, Fairhaven, The Family Fang, MAD, Youth in Oregon, Blue Valentine, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,Little Women, Showing Up, and New Amsterdam. Plunkett currently stars as Older Allie in The Notebook on Broadway.
Parker Posey has appeared in many independent films—Broken English, Price Check, Party Girl, The House of Yes, Fay Grimm, Clockwatchers, and Columbus—to name a few. Most people know her from the Christopher Guest movies, such as Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show. She’s done a few Hollywood movies like Superman Returns, Blade Trinity, and Josie and the Pussycats. She published her first book, You’re on an Airplane, which became a national best seller. From 2018 - 21, she starred in the reboot of Lost in Space. Posey was featured on Dick Wolf’s podcast, Hunted, and recent projects include High Fidelity, The Staircase, Tales of the Walking Dead, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Beau Is Afraid, and Thelma. Her forthcoming projects include The Parenting, Bream Gives Me Hiccups, and season three of The White Lotus. Onstage, Posey recently starred in The Seagull/Woodstock, NY, with The New Group.
Amy Tan is the author of The Valley of Amazement, The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter's Daughter, The Opposite of Fate, Saving Fish from Drowning, Where the Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir, and the children's books The Moon Lady and Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat. Tan was a co-producer and co-screenwriter of the film version of The Joy Luck Club and the librettist for the opera The Bonesetter's Daughter. Her most recent book of which she also illustrated, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, was published in April. Tan serves on the board of American Bird Conservancy, the National Poetry Series, and The Community of Writers.
Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Female Persuasion, The Interestings, The Ten-Year Nap, and The Wife, which was adapted to film in 2018, starring Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce. She was the guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 2017, and has also published books for young readers, mostly recently a picture book, Millions of Maxes. Wolitzer is a faculty member in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton, where she co-founded and co-directs BookEnds, a one-year, non-credit intensive in the novel.
CREDITS
“The Frog Prince” by Robert Coover. Copyright © 2014 by Robert Coover. Originally appeared in The New Yorker. Reprinted by permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc. on behalf of the author.
“Chasing Birds” by Cristina Henríquez. First published in Ploughshares. Copyright © 2006 by Cristina Henríquez. Used by permission of The Book Group.
