Picture Perfect

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 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. Next, Danes will star 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.

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 most recent projects include The Decameron, Inside Out 2, Netflix’s Office Romance, and Toy Story 5. 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, the Mike Schur–produced Netflix animated comedy Dang, and the sci-fi short Houston, We Have a Crush. 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 with her husband Jerry Stiller, 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. Meara’s son, Ben Stiller, recently directed the documentary Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost, a tribute to his parents.

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

“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.