First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing

Kevin Powers is the author of A Shout in the Ruins, The Yellow Birds and the poetry collection, Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting.  He was born and raised in Richmond, VA. In 2004 and 2005 he served with the U.S. Army in Mosul and Tal Afar, Iraq. He studied English at Virginia Commonwealth University after his honorable discharge and received an M.F.A. in Poetry from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin in 2012. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Curtis Sittenfeld is the bestselling author of five novels: Prep, The Man of My Dreams, American Wife, Sisterland, and Eligible. Her first story collection is called You Think It, I’ll Say It. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarah Henstra is the author of The Red Word and Mad Miss Mimic. She is is a professor of English literature at Ryerson University in Toronto. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robert Kurson is an American author, best known for his 2004 bestselling book, Shadow Divers, the true story of two Americans who discovered a World War II German U-boat sunk 60 miles off the coast of New Jersey. His new book, Rocket Men, tells the story of Apollo 8, the first manned NASA mission to the moon in 1968. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anna Quindlen is a novelist and journalist whose work has appeared on fiction, nonfiction, and self-help bestseller lists. She is the author of nine novels: Object Lessons, One True Thing, Black and Blue, Blessings, Rise and Shine, Every Last One, Still Life with Bread Crumbs, Miller’s Valley, and Alternate Side. Her memoir Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, published in 2012, was a #1 New York Times bestseller. Her book A Short Guide to a Happy Life has sold more than a million copies. While a columnist at The New York Times she won the Pulitzer Prize and published two collections, Living Out Loud and Thinking Out Loud. Her Newsweek columns were collected in Loud and Clear. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yang Huang grew up in Jiangsu, China and came to the U.S. to study computer science. While working as an engineer, she studied literature and pursued writing, her passion since childhood. Her collection of linked family stories My Old Faithful won the Juniper Prize for Fiction. Her debut novel Living Treasures won the Nautilus Book Award silver medal in fiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hermione grew up in south London and graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2007 with a double first in English Literature. After working on the Observer’s New Review section for a few years she moved to New York and has lived in Brooklyn since 2010. She writes about culture, especially books, film, music and gender, for the Guardian, The New Yorker, The New York Times, the TLS and others. Her debut novel is called Neon in Daylight.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zachary Lazar is the author of five books, including Sway, Evening’s Empire: The Story of My Father’s Murder,  I Pity the Poor Immigrant, and Vengeance. I Pity the Poor Immigrant was a New York Times Notable Book of 2014. Sway was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Award and an Editor’s Choice at the New York Times Book Review, as well as a best book of 2008 in the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Publishers Weekly, and several other publications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tara Westover is an American author living in the UK. Born in Idaho to a father opposed to public education, she never attended school. She spent her days working in her father's junkyard or stewing herbs for her mother, a self-taught herbalist and midwife. She was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jenny Offill is the author of Dept. of Speculation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices