The Maris Review

Ayad Akhtar is a playwright, novelist, and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the author of American Dervish, named a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2012. As a playwright, he has written numerous award-winning works. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Colin Dickey is a writer, speaker, and academic, and has made a career out of collecting unusual objects and hidden histories all over the country. He's a regular contributor to the LA Review of Books and Lapham's Quarterly, and is the co-editor of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology. He is also a member of the Order of the Good Death, a collective of artists, writers, and death industry professionals interested in improving the Western world's relationship with mortality. His latest book is called Unidentified.Recommended Reading:The Sobbing School by Joshua BennettSwallow the Fish and Experiments in Joy by Gabrielle Civil Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Morgan Jerkins is the NYT bestselling author of This WIll Be My Undoing. She is a senior editor at Medium’s ZORA magazine. Her work has been featured in the New Yorker, Vogue, the New York Times, the Atlantic, Elle, Rolling Stone, Lenny Letter, and BuzzFeed, among many other outlets. She lives in New York. Her latest book is called Wandering In Strange Lands. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Karolina Waclawiak is the author of the novels How to Get into the Twin Palms and The Invaders. Formerly an editor at The Believer, she is the executive editor of culture at BuzzFeed News. Her latest novel is called Life Changes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Natasha Trethewey is a former US poet laureate and the author of five collections of poetry, as well as a book of creative nonfiction. She is currently the Board of Trustees Professor of English at Northwestern University. In 2007 she won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her collection Native Guard. Her latest book is called Memorial Drive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tara Isabella Burton is a contributing editor at the American Interest, a columnist at Religion News Service, and the former staff religion reporter at Vox.com. She has written on religion and secularism for National Geographic, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and more, and holds a doctorate in theology from Oxford. She is also the author of the novel Social Creature. Her latest book is called Strange Rites. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lacy Crawford is the author of the novel Early Decision. She lives in Southern California with her family. Her memoir is called Notes On a Silencing. Recommended Reading:The Wanderers by Meg HowreyMothering Sunday by Graham Swift Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Raven Leilani’s work has been published in Granta, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Narrative, Yale Review, Conjunctions, and The Cut, among other publications. Luster is her first novel.Recommended Reading:How Much Of These Hills Is Gold by C. Pam ZhangLakewood by Megan GiddingsThese Ghosts Are Family by Maisy CardDays of Distraction by Alexandra ChangThere Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce by Morgan Parker Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman are the hosts of Call Your Girlfriend, a podcast for long-distance besties. They wrote their new book, Big Friendship, together.Recommended Reading:Luster by Raven Leilani  In the Dream House by Carmen Maria MachadoPleasure Activism by Adrienne Maree BrownSponsor:This episode is brought to you by Counterpoint Press, publishers of The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-eun. A fast-paced eco-thriller with a fierce feminist sensibility, The Disaster Tourist introduces a fresh new voice that engages with the global dialogue around climate activism, dark tourism, and the #MeToo movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lynn Steger Strong's first novel, Hold Still, was released by Liveright/WW Norton in 2016. Her nonfiction has been published by Guernica, Los Angeles Review of Books, Elle.com, Catapult, Lit Hub, and others. She teaches both fiction and non-fiction writing at Columbia University, Fairfield University, and the Pratt Institute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices