The Way I See It

Ramona Ausubel is the author of the novels The Last Animal, Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty, and No One Is Here Except All of Us, and the short story collections Awayland and A Guide to Being Born. Winner of the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Fiction and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, she has also been a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, and long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, One Story, Electric Literature, Five Chapters, The Green Mountains Review, Slice, and collected in The Best American Fantasy, and online in The Paris Review.

Fred Hechinger recently starred in the roles of Emperor Caracalla in the blockbuster film Gladiator II, Dmitri Kravinoff in Kraven the Hunter, Harper in Nickel Boys, Daniel Markowitz in Thelma, and as Jason Hochberg in Hell of a Summer. Hechinger made his film debut in Eighth Grade, and subsequently has gone on to be seen in Alex Strangelove, The Woman in the Window, Fear Street, News of the World, The Underground Railroad, Italian Studies, The White Lotus,The Pale Blue Eye, Butcher's Crossing, and Pam & Tommy. Forthcoming projects include Love Is Not the Answer and Preparation for the Next Life. Hechinger attended the Thalia Kids’ Book Club Camp at Symphony Space for six years and came back as a counselor for one summer.

Charles Johnson is a novelist, essayist, literary scholar, philosopher, cartoonist, screenwriter, the author of dozens of books, and professor emeritus at the University of Washington in Seattle. A MacArthur fellow, his fiction includes Night Hawks, Dr. King’s Refrigerator, Dreamer, Faith and the Good Thing, Oxherding Tale, and Middle Passage, for which he won the National Book Award. In 2002 he received the Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

J. Robert Lennon is the author of eleven novels, including Broken River, Subdivision, and Buzz Kill, and the story collections Pieces for the Left Hand, See You in Paradise, and Let Me Think. He teaches creative writing at Cornell University.

Arnell Powell has guest starred and recurred on several television series, including Stranger Things, Lone Star 911, Bosch, Snowfall, HBO’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. His film appearances include The Conjuring and Hidden Figures. He can be seen in numerous commercials and is an award-winning audiobook narrator. Powell earned his M.F.A. in Acting from NYU’s Graduate Acting School. He has taught at Harlem School of the Arts as well as for the NYC Dept of Education, and coaches privately in Los Angeles.

Academy Award–nominated actress Amy Ryan is known for her work on the big and small screen alike, as well as her Tony-nominated work on stage. She can be seen in the Apple TV+ series Sugar, opposite Colin Farrell; Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building; and the Apple film Wolfs, opposite George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Some notable film credits include Beau Is Afraid, Worth, Birdman, Clear History, Lost Girls, Late Night, Strange but True, Gone Baby Gone, Bridge of Spies, Win Win, Jack Goes Boating, Capote, Green Zone, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Central Intelligence, and Keane. Her television credits include Sugar, The Wire, The Office, In Treatment, Broad City, and High Maintenance. Amy has worked in the theater for more than 25 years on and off Broadway and in London. Her work onstage earned her an OBIE award for her performance in LOVE LOVE LOVE, and three Tony nominations for A Streetcar Named Desire, Uncle Vanya, and Doubt.

Martin Short is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, and writer. He has received various awards including two Primetime Emmys and a Tony. Short was awarded as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2019. His extensive film and television credits include SCTV, Saturday Night Live, Three Amigos, the Father of the Bride I & II, Primetime Glick, Jiminy Glick in Lalawood, The Morning Show, and Schmigadoon! In 2015, Short started touring nationally with fellow comedian Steve Martin. In 2018, they released their Netflix special, An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life, for which they received three Emmy Award nominations. Since 2021, he has co-starred in the Hulu comedy series Only Murders in the Building alongside Martin and Selena Gomez. For his performance he has earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, plus Screen Actors Guild and Critics Choice awards.

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. The Interestings is currently being adapted as a musical, with a book by Sarah Ruhl and music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles. 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

“You Can Find Love Now” by Ramona Ausubel, from The New Yorker (June 2014). Copyright © 2014 by Ramona Ausubel. Used by permission of Janklow & Nesbit Associates.

“The Weave” by Charles Johnson. Copyright © 2014 by Charles Johnson. Originally appeared in The Iowa Review. Reprinted by permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc. on behalf of the author.

“Blue Light, Red Light” by J. Robert Lennon, from Let Me Think (Graywolf Press, 2021). Copyright © 2021 by J. Robert Lennon. Used by permission of the author.