Who, What, Where?

Rumaan Alam is the author of the novels Rich and Pretty, That Kind of Mother, and Leave the World Behind. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine,The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books,Bookforum, and TheNew Republic.

Willem Dafoe was an early member of the experimental theater company The Wooster Group in New York City. His extensive film career includes performances in the Spider-Man trilogy, The French Dispatch, Nightmare Alley, The Lighthouse, Motherless Brooklyn, At Eternity’s Gate, The Florida Project, John Wick, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Mississippi Burning, The English Patient, Affliction, The Last Temptation of Christ, Platoon, and dozens more. He has loaned his voice to The Simpsons, Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Finding Nemo, Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam, among others. Upcoming projects include The Legend of Ochi, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Tropico, and Gonzo Girl.

Nathan Hinton began his professional career at the Joseph Papp Public Theater and has played major and supporting roles with the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC; Pittsburgh Public Theater; Actors Theatre of Louisville; Triad Stage; Berkeley Rep; Dallas Theatre Center; the Huntington; Rattlestick Playwrights Theater; and The Working Theater. He was a member of the first national touring company of Angels in America and won the Barrymore Award for Excellence in Theatre as part of the ensemble of Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out with the Philadelphia Theatre Company. His film and television credits include Madam Secretary, Manifest, The Code, FBI: Most Wanted, and Walking Home: A Survival Guide. Hinton is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

Gish Jen's latest work, a collection of linked stories entitled Thank You, Mr. Nixon, was just published. The author of six works of fiction, including Typical American, Who’s Irish? and The Resisters, as well as two works of nonfiction, she has appeared inThe Best American Short Stories four times, including The Best American Short Stories of the Century. Her honors include the Lannan Literary Award for fiction and the Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; she delivered the William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in American Studies at Harvard University, and sits on the board of the MacArthur Foundation.

Etgar Keret was born in Ramat Gan and now lives in Tel Aviv. A recipient of the French Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, the Charles Bronfman Prize, and the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, he is the author of the memoir The Seven Good Years and story collections including Fly Already; The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God; The Nimrod Flipout; and Suddenly, a Knock on the Door. His work has been translated into over forty-five languages and appeared in TheNew Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, Paris Review, and the New York Times, among other publications.

Freda Foh Shen’s Broadway credits include Shogun, Pacific Overtures, The King and I, and Execution of Justice. Off-Broadway she received an Obie Award for Top Girls, and starred in King Richard II and The Tempest, among others. In Los Angeles, she received the Drama-Logue Award for her work in The Reunification Hotel and Sweeney Todd. Her extensive TC credits include recurring roles on 9-1-1, The Fix, Close to Home, Everwood, Elementary, Gideon’s Crossing, ER, Seventh Heaven, and Party of Five. She starred in the television movies Running Towards the Flames, The Tiger Woods Story, and Cracker. She has appeared in films including The Lone Ranger, the 2009 Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, Full Frontal, Coast Lines, Mulan, Basic Instinct, Crossing Delancey, Born Yesterday, and A Mighty Wind.

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. She is excited to be the new host of the literary radio show and podcast Selected Shorts.

CREDITS

“What Animal Are You?” from Suddenly, A Knock On The Door by Etgar Keret, translated by several translators. English translation copyright © 2012 by Etgar Keret. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. All Rights Reserved.

“Nothing Can Come Between Us” by Rumaan Alam, published in Ploughshares (Summer 2021). Copyright © 2021 by Rumaan Alam. Used by permission of The Book Group.

"Who's Irish?" by Gish Jen. Originally published in The New Yorker. From Who's Irish? (Knopf). Copyright © 1998 by Gish Jen. Used by permission of Maxine Groffsky Literary Agency.