Surprising Interventions

Teagle F. Bougere recently portrayed James Baldwin in The American Vicarious production of Debate: Baldwin vs. Buckley, in New York City, Chicago, Florence, and London. He co-starred with Catherine Zeta-Jones in the television series Queen America. Bougere's Broadway credits include The Crucible, A Raisin in the Sun, and The Tempest. He was featured in The Public Theater’s productions of Socrates and the much acclaimed production of Coriolanus in Central Park. His most recent New York stage appearance was the world premiere of The New Englanders at Manhattan Theater Club. Additional theater credits include Is God Is at SoHo Rep, Beast in the Jungle, the title role in the stage adaptation of Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man at The Court Theater in Chicago, The Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., and The Huntington in Boston, Julius Caesar and Cymbeline for The Public Theater in Central Park, A Soldier’s Play at Second Stage, A Fair Country at Lincoln Center, Last Dance for Sybil (with Ruby Dee) at the New Federal Theatre, An Iliad (one-man show) at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and Blue Door at Berkeley Rep. His film and television credits include Hill ’n’ Gully, The Path, The Mist, Good Friday, Conviction, Cosby, The Job, Third Watch, Murder in Black and White, A Night at the Museum, The Imposters, The Pelican Brief, Two Weeks Notice, What the Deaf Man Heard, A Gifted Man, The Big C, The Blacklist, and Bull, as well as seven episodes for the Law & Order franchise.

Jamel Brinkley was raised in the Bronx and Brooklyn. He is the author of Witness: Stories, winner of the Maya Angelou Book Award, a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and the Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize. His debut collection, A Lucky Man, was a finalist for the National Book Award, among other honors, and the winner of the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. His writing has appeared in A Public Space, Ploughshares, Zoetrope: All-Story, The Paris Review, American Short Fiction, The Yale Review, Guernica, The Threepenny Review, Gulf Coast, Glimmer Train, The Believer, and Tin House, and has been anthologized three times in The Best American Short Stories. He was a Carol Houck Smith Fellow (Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing), a Wallace Stegner Fellow (Stanford University), and has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award (American Academy of Arts and Letters), the Rome Prize in Literature, and an O. Henry Award. His work has also received support from the Lannan Foundation and Loghaven Artist Residency (Aslan Foundation). Brinkley teaches at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His debut novel, Carrie, earned him the title “the King of Horror.” Among the films adapted from King's fiction are Carrie, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Christine, Stand by Me, Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, Dolores Claiborne, The Green Mile, It, and many more. He has been honored with more than a dozen Bram Stoker awards, as well as Edgar, Mystery Writers of America, International Horror Guild, O. Henry, Shirley Jackson, and World Fantasy awards, among others, and the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and the National Medal of Arts. His first crime thriller featuring Bill Hodges, Mr Mercedes, won the Edgar Award for best novel and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Both Mr Mercedes and End of Watch received the Goodreads Choice Award for the Best Mystery and Thriller of 2014 and 2016 respectively. HIs new novel, Never Flinch, was published in May of 2025.

David Morse can currently be seen in the Amazon Prime Video Series We Were Liars. Additional recent credits include The Chair, The Good Lord Bird, The Morning Show, The Deuce, and The Last Thing He Told Me. Morse has received Emmy nominations for his roles on House and John Adams, and he has appeared in numerous television series, including Emmy-nominated Escape at Dannemora, Hack, Treme, True Detective, Outsiders, and St. Elsewhere. Morse’s film credits include The Green Mile, 16 Blocks, The Hurt Locker, World War Z, Concussion, and La Gloria,. A stage veteran, Morse received a 2022 Tony Award nomination for his second run in the award-winning play How I Learned to Drive on Broadway. His previous stint on Broadway was in the 2018 revival of The Iceman Cometh, for which he also received a Tony Award nomination. His other notable stage performances include the 1984 Los Angeles production of Of Mice and Men; Lanford Wilson’s Redwood Curtain, in which he originated the role of Lyman; Heather MacDonald’s An Almost Holy Picture; the Broadway production of The Seafarer; and the Off-Broadway production of The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin.

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

“Blessed Deliverance,” by Jamel Brinkley, from The Best American Short Stories 2024 (Mariner Books, 2024). First appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story (Volume 26, No. 4, Winter 2022/2023). Copyright © 2023 by Jamel Brinkley. Adapted version of the text used by permission of The Wylie Agency, LLC and the author.

Stephen King’s work is performed courtesy of Darhansoff & Verrill Literary Agents, Knopf Doubleday, and Scribner.