John Cheever (1912 - 1982) was the author of four novels, a novella, and more than 100 short stories, many of which were published in The New Yorker. His first novel, The Wapshot Chronicle, won the 1958 National Book Award, and The Stories of John Cheever was awarded both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Cheever was the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, the Edward MacDowell Medal, and the National Medal for Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among numerous honors.
Vanessa Cuti's fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories 2021, The Kenyon Review, AGNI, West Branch, and others. She received her MFA from Stony Brook University and lives in the suburbs of New York City. The Tip Line (Crooked Lane, 2023) is her debut novel.
Claire Danes recently starred on the Hulu limited series Fleishman Is in Trouble, for which she was nominated for Emmy, Golden Globe, and Critics Choice awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series. She is well known for starring as Carrie Mathison on eight seasons of Homeland, a role which garnered her two Emmys, three Golden Globes, and a SAG Award. Additionally, she received an Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG Award for starring in the HBO film Temple Grandin. Danes is also known for starring in My So-Called Life, for which she won a Golden Globe. Her film credits include Little Women, Romeo + Juliet, The Hours, Shopgirl, Stardust, and A Kid Like Jake, among others. Danes made her Broadway debut as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion in 2007 and appeared in Dry Powder at the Public Theater in 2016. Her audiobook recording of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale won the 2013 Audie Award. Her recent television credits include Stephen Soderbergh’s Full Circle and The Essex Serpent opposite Tom Hiddleston.
Tony Hale is a two-time Emmy Award–winning actor known for his work on Arrested Development, Veep, The Mysterious Benedict Society, Being the Ricardos, Hocus Pocus 2, Toy Story 4, Frosted, and “Beyoncé x Verizon: Super Bowl 58.” His forthcoming projects include The Decameron on Netflix and Inside out 2. Hale co-wrote the children’s book Archibald’s Next Big Thing, which became an animated series on Netflix and Peacock.
Jen Kim is a comedy writer based in Los Angeles. Most recently, she wrote for Mel Brooks’s History of the World Part II and a Mike Schur–produced Netflix animated comedy Dang. Aside from TV, Jen likes to write short humor pieces for The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, and The American Bystander, among other publications. She has also written a deranged, comedic novella parodying gritty detective novels, The Show Must Go On: A Detective Grit & Taylor Taylor Jr. Tale. She has the same name as her oldest sister, Jenny, but it’s not that weird because her parents didn’t know they were the same name.
Anne Meara (1929 – 2015) was known as half of the comedy team Stiller & Meara, and also had an impressive solo career. Her Broadway work included Eastern Standard and the Roundabout’s production of Anna Christie, for which she received a Tony nomination. On screen, she appeared in The Out of Towners, Fame, The Boys from Brazil, Lovers and Other Strangers, Awakenings, When Evening Comes, Another Harvest Moon, Night at the Museum, All My Children, Kate McShane, Rhoda, Archie Bunker’s Place, Alf, Sex and the City, King of Queens, Mercy, Gravity, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
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
“Boy Meets Girl,” by Jen Kim, from The New Yorker (September 12, 2023). Copyright © 2023 by Jen Kim. Used by permission of the author.
“The Worm in the Apple” by John Cheever. Collected in The Stories of John Cheever. Copyright © 1978 by John Cheever. Used by permission of The Wylie Agency, Inc.
“Our Children,” by Vanessa Cuti, from The Best American Short Stories 2021 (Mariner Books, 2021). First published in West Branch (November 2020). Copyright © 2020 by Vanessa Cuti. Used by permission of the author.
