First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing

Deborah Willis was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. Her first book, Vanishing and Other Stories, was named one of the the Globe and Mail's Best Books of 2009, and was nominated for the Governor General's Award. Her latest book is The Dark and Other Love Stories. She was a bookseller at Munro's Books in Victoria, BC, a writer-in-residence at Joy Kogawa House in Vancouver, BC, and the 2012-2013 Calgary Distinguished Writers Program writer-in-residence at the University of Calgary. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Katie Kitamura is a critic and novelist living in New York City. She is the author of Gone to the Forest and The Longshot, both of which were finalists for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award. A recipient of a Lannan Residency Fellowship, Kitamura has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, Granta, BOMB, Triple Canopy, and is a regular contributor to Frieze.  Her most recent novel is A Separation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lily King is the author of Euphoria. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarah Manguso is the author of seven books including 300 Arguments, a genre-defying work of nonfiction; Ongoingness, a meditation on motherhood and time; The Guardians, an investigation of friendship and suicide; The Two Kinds of Decay, a memoir of her experience with a chronic autoimmune disease, and Hard to Admit and Harder to Escape, a collection of very short stories. She is also the author of the poetry collections Siste Viatorand The Captain Lands in Paradise, poems from which have won a Pushcart Prize and appeared in several editions of the Best American Poetry series. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anuk Arudpragasam is from Colombo, Sri Lanka, and graduated with a BA from Stanford University in 2010. His first novel is called The Story of a Brief Marriage.  He is also working on his PhD in Philosophy from Columbia University about the theorization and idealization of the individual in the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, and John Dewey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marcy Dermansky is the author of the novels The Red Car, Bad Marie and Twins.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Melanie Finn was born in Kenya in 1964.  She spent her childhood largely unsupervised, roaming suburban Nairobi’s remnant woodlands and back roads.  When she was 11, she moved to Connecticut with her mother and stepfather, and later attended New York University, graduating with a BA in journalism.  She is the author of the novels Away From You and The Gloaming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joshua Mohr is the author of the memoir "Sirens", as well as five novels including "Damascus", which The New York Times called "Beat-poet cool." He’s also written "Fight Song" and "Some Things that Meant the World to Me," one of O Magazine’s Top 10 reads of 2009 and a San Francisco Chronicle best-seller, as well as "Termite Parade," an Editors’ Choice in The New York Times.  His novel "All This Life" won the Northern California Book Award. He is the founder of Decant Editorial.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peter Orner is the author of Am I Alone Here? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First Draft interview with Gerrard Conley, author of the memoir Boy Erased. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices