Romance of the Summer

Massimo Bontempelli (1878–1960) was a key figure of the Italian avant-garde, publishing his first collection, Sette savi (Seven Stages) in 1912 before covering the First World War as a correspondent on the front lines. Following the war, Bontempelli renounced most of his early work and published a collection of micro-novels entitled La vita intensa (The Intense Life), among many other works.

Hugh Dancy played Will Graham in Hannibal, for which he earned a Saturn Award and two Critics’ Choice nominations. Additional film and television credits include Black Hawk Down, Ella Enchanted, King Arthur, Adam, the television mini-series Elizabeth I, for which he received an Emmy nomination, Blood and Chocolate, Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Big C, Deadline Gallipoli, The Path, Late Night, Homeland, The Good Fight, and Downton Abbey: A New Era. On stage, he starred off-Broadway in The Pride and Apologia, and on Broadway in Venus in Fur and the revival of Journey’s End. Dancy currently stars in the reboot of Law & Order and is the voice of Otto Octavius in the animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

Samantha Irby is a humorist and essayist and the author of the essay collections Quietly Hostile; Wow, No Thank You; We Are Never Meeting in Real Life; and Meaty.

W. P. Kinsella (1935–2016) wrote over two dozen novels and hundreds of short stories. He is best known for his baseball fiction, which includes the novels and short story collections The Thrill of the Grass, Go the Distance, The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, The Dixon Cornbelt League, Box Socials, and Shoeless Joe, his multi-award-winning novel that became the classic movie Field of Dreams, nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. His other books include Dance Me Outside, also made into a feature film, Scars, The Miss Hobbema Pageant, and Red Wolf, Red Wolf. In 2005, he was awarded the Order of British Columbia, and in 2009, he was awarded the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award; Kinsella was also granted honorary degrees from Laurentian University, University of Victoria, and the Open Learning Institute in recognition of his literary achievements.

Jenny McPhee is the author of the novels The Centre of Things, No Ordinary Matter, and A Man of No Moon. Her articles, stories, and translations have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and Harper’s Bazaar, among others. Her translations include books by Primo Levi, Natalia Ginzburg, Giacomo Leopardi, Curzio Malaparte, Paolo Maurensig, and Pope John Paul II. She is the Academic Director of the Center for Applied Liberal Arts continuing education program at New York University, where she is also a Professor of Translation and Creative Writing.

Denis O’Hare is known for his versatility and multiple roles on the series American Horror Story. His screen credits include Garden State, A Mighty Heart, Michael Clayton, Milk, The Comedians, Duplicity, The Good Wife, True Blood, The Normal Heart, Dallas Buyers Club, This Is Us, Big Little Lies, Lizzie, The Goldfinch, American Gods, Dr. Seuss' the Grinch Musical, The Postcard Killings, The Nevers, The Accidental Wolf, Infinite Storm, Trying, The Price of Money, and Evil. He won a Tony Award for his performance in Take Me Out, a Drama Desk Award for his role in Sweet Charity, and is the co-writer of The Good Book and An Iliad, which he also starred in. O’Hare’s upcoming projects include the Netflix series The Boroughs and the films The Postcard Killer, In the Room, and Make Whole. He can currently be seen on stage in the national premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s Here We Are at the Lyttelton Theatre in London.

Retta is best known for her work on Good Girls and Parks & Recreation. Her screen and voice credits include Elsbeth, The Greatest Hits, The Morning Show, Hit Man, 80 for Brady, Big MouthPremium Blend, Drunk History, Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, Pinky Malinky, To the Bone, Band Aid, and Father Figures, among others. Her essay collection, So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y’all Don’t Even Know, was published in 2018. Retta can currently be seen hosting Ugliest House in America.

Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Female Persuasion, The Interestings, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, and The Wife. She is a faculty member in the Creative Writing and Literature Program at The Lichtenstein Center at Stony Brook University, where she co-founded and co-directs BookEnds, a one-year, non-credit intensive for emerging novelists. Wolitzer, who was the guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 2017, is the radio and podcast host of Symphony Space’s Selected Shorts.

CREDITS

“The Miraculous Beach, or, Prize for Modesty by Massimo Bontempelli ” (“La spiaggia miracolosa ovvero Premio della modestia (Aminta)”) from Opere scelte. Edited by Luigi Baldacci (Mondadori, i Meridiani, 2004). Copyright © Alvise Memmo Estate of Massimo Bontempelli, 1938. Translation copyright © 2019 Jenny McPhee.

“The Case for Remaining Indoors” by Samantha Irby, from We Are Never Meeting in Real Life (Vintage Books, 2017). Copyright © 2017 by Samantha Irby. Used by permission of the author.

“The Thrill of the Grass” by W.P. Kinsella, from The Thrill of the Grass (Penguin Books, 1984). Copyright © 1984 by W.P. Kinsella. Used by permission of the Carolyn Swayze Literary Agency.