Kenneth Calhoun’s stories have appeared in Ploughshares, Tin House, The Paris Review, New England Review, Subtropics, the O. Henry Story Prize anthology and elsewhere. His novel Black Moon was longlisted for the PEN/Bingham Debut Novel Prize in 2015.
Katrina Lenk can be seen in a major recurring role in the limited series Apples Never Fall on Peacock. Previously, she appeared as a recurring guest star in the final season of Netflix’s Ozark. She recently starred as Bobbie in the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Company, the first woman to play the role on Broadway. She also received acclaim for starring as Dina in The Band’s Visit on Broadway, for which she earned Tony, Grammy, and Lucille Lortel Awards. She also received nominations from Outer Critics Circle, Chita Rivera Awards, Drama League, Theatre World Award’s Dorothy Loudon Award, and a Clarence Derwent Award (Breakout Female of the Year) for her performance. Additional Broadway credits include the Pulitzer Prize–winning Indecent (OCC nomination), Once, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, and The Miracle Worker. Lenk’s regional theater credits include Indecent at the Vineyard, La Jolla Playhouse, and Yale Rep; iWitness at the Mark Taper Forum; Lost Land with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Caucasian Chalk Circle at South Coast Rep; and Lovelace: A Rock Opera in LA and Edinburgh. Onscreen, Lenk has also been seen in Little Voice, Tommy, The Village, The Good Fight, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Get Down, Elementary, and The Blacklist.
Rachel Khong is the author of Goodbye, Vitamin, winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction. Her latest novel, the New York Times bestselling Real Americans, was published in 2024. She writes a Substack about short stories called “Short Story Short.”
Justin Kirk is best known for his roles on the television shows Succession, Perry Mason, Weeds, Jack & Jill, and the miniseries Angels in America. Additional screen credits include Modern Family, The Blacklist, Wayward Pines, You’re the Worst, Ghostbusters (2016), APB, Molly’s Game, Vice, and Kidding. He has appeared on Broadway in Any Given Day, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Other Desert Cities, and at the Geffen Playhouse in Old Wicked Songs and These Paper Bullets! Kirk can currently be seen on AMC's Interview with the Vampire.
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
“Mindless in America,” by Kenneth Calhoun. Commissioned by Symphony Space. Copyright © 2023 by Kenneth Calhoun and Symphony Space.
Adapted from Rachel Khong’s story “D Day,” first published by Guernica Magazine (October 6, 2022). Copyright © 2022 by Rachel Khong. Abridged version of the text used by permission of Janklow & Nesbit Associates and the author.
