Roz Chast: While You Were Sleeping

Tom Barbash is the author of four books as well as reviews, essays, and articles for publications such as McSweeney’s, Tin House, The Believer, Narrative Magazine, ZYZZYVA, and The New York Times. His short story collection Stay Up With Me was nominated for the Folio Prize and picked as a Best Book of the Year by the Independent of London, NPR, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Jose Mercury News. His most recent book, the novel The Dakota Winters, was a national bestseller and named as an Editors Choice by The New York Times Book Review. He teaches in the writing program at California College of the Arts.

Roz Chast's cartoons began appearing in The New Yorker in 1978, where she has since published more than one thousand. She is the author of the graphic memoirs Going Into Town, which won the New York City Book Award; the #1 New York Times bestseller Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, a National Book Critics Circle Award and Kirkus Prize winner and finalist for the National Book Award; What I Hate: From A to Z; and her cartoon collections The Party, After You Left, and Theories of Everything, among others. Chast was awarded the Harvey Hall of Fame Award. I Must Be Dreaming was published in October.

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

John Fugelsang is a comedian, actor, and broadcaster on SiriusXM. He's been killed on CSI, picketed by Westboro Baptist Church, was the host of America’s Funniest Home Videos, and has appeared frequently on news commentary shows on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News, and NPR. He appears in the features The Girl on the Train, Coyote Ugly, and The Whole Truth. In 2016, his film Dream On was named Best Documentary at the New York Independent Film Festival.

Tessa Hadley is the author of more than a dozen works of fiction and non-fiction, including the critical study Henry Jamesand theImagination of Pleasure, the short story collections Married Love and Bad Dreams, which was a New York Times Book Review Notable Book, and the novels Accidents in the Home, Everything Will Be Alright, Clever Girl, The Past, Late in the Day, and Free Love. Her writing has also appeared in The New Yorker and Granta. Hadley has been honored with the O. Henry Award, the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, and the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, among others. She teaches creative writing at Bath Spa University in England. Hadley’s latest collection, After the Funeral, was published in July.

Ed Park is the author of the novels Personal Days and Same Bed Different Dreams. He is a founding editor of The Believer and has worked in newspapers, book publishing, and academia. His writing appears in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. Born in Buffalo, he lives in Manhattan with his family.

Jason Ralph recently co-starred as a series regular on the last season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Three Women opposite Shailene Woodley. Previously he starred as Quentin Coldwater in Syfy’s The Magicians. He has recurred on the Paramount series Younger, NBC’s Aquarius, WGN’s Manhattan, and the CBS series Madam Secretary. Additional notable credits include Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things; J.C. Chandor’s A Most Violent Year opposite Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac, HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness, The Night Of, Looking, Netflix’s Grace and Frankie, and the CW series Gossip Girl. On stage, Jason starred in the New World Stages/Off-Broadway cast of Peter and the Starcatcher directed by Alex Timbers and Roger Reese. He was also seen as Chris Conrad in On the Head of Pin written and directed by Frank Winters. He is a founding member and former Artistic Director of the Strangemen Theater Company in New York City.

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.

Rita Wolf has been featured in Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance with the Transport Group and Out of Time at The Public Theater, both co-productions with The National Asian American Theatre Company; and The Michaels and What Happened? The Michaels Abroad, written and directed by Richard Nelson, at The Public Theater and Hunter College. Additional theater credits include An Ordinary Muslim at New York Theatre Workshop, The American Pilot at Manhattan Theatre Club, for which she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award, and the premiere of Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul at New York Theatre Workshop and BAM. This spring, Wolf was a Beinecke Fellow at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University while appearing in Caryl Churchill's play Escaped Alone.

CREDITS

“The Wife on Ambien,” by Ed Park, as published in The New Yorker (July 16, 2017). Copyright © 2017 by Ed Park. Used by permission of the author.

“Bad Dreams,” by Tessa Hadley, from Bad Dreams and Other Stories (Harper, 2017). Copyright © 2017 by Tessa Hadley. Used by permission of the author.

“Stay Up With Me,” by Tom Barbash, from Stay Up With Me (Ecco, 2013). Copyright © 2013 by Tom Barbash. Used by permission of the author.