JENNY OFFILL is the author of the novel, Last Things, which was chosen as a notable or best book of the year by the New York Times, the Village Voice, the Los Angeles Times, and the Guardian (U.K.). It was also a finalist for the Los Angeles Times First Book Award in 2000. She teaches in the MFA writing program at Brooklyn College. [Read Essay Excerpt]
ELISSA SCHAPPELL is the author of Use Me, a novel in stories, the editor-at-large for Tin House, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Her essays, interviews and stories have appeared in places such as The Paris Review, The New York Times Book Review, as well as The Mrs. Dalloway Reader, The KGB Bar Reader, and The Bitch in the House. She lives in Brooklyn. [Read Essay Excerpt]
Elissa and Jenny met while teaching in the Queens University low-residency MFA program and became fast friends.
HEATHER ABEL is a writer living in Brooklyn. She previously was a reporter and editor with High Country News and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. [Read Essay Excerpt]
DIANA ABU JABER is the author of the novels Arabian Jazz and Crescent, and a memoir, The Language of Baklava. She lives in Miami, Florida. [Read Essay Excerpt]
DOROTHY ALLISON is the author of Bastard Out of Carolina, Cavedweller, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, and Skin: Talking About Sex, Class and Literature. She makes her home in northern California, with her partner Alix Layman, and her 11-year-old son, Wolf Michael. [Read Essay Excerpt]
NUAR ALSADIR'S poetry and prose have appeared in numerous periodicals, including Grand Street, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, The New York Times Magazine, Slate, Tin House, and Bookforum. She teaches writing at New York University. [Read Essay Excerpt]
KATE BERNHEIMER is the author of a novel, The Complete Tales of Ketzia Gold, and editor of the collection Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales. She recently taught in the MFA Program for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts. [Read Essay Excerpt]
EMILY CHENOWETH is a writer living in Brooklyn whose work has appeared in Tin House and other publications. She received her MFA from Columbia University, and she currently works as an editor at Publishers Weekly. [Read Essay Excerpt]
JENNIFER GILMORE's work has appeared in magazines and journals including Alaska Quarterly Review, Allure, Biography, BookForum, CutBank, Epoch, Nerve, and Salon. She has recently completed her first novel. [Read Essay Excerpt]
BEVERLY GOLOGORSKY'S novel, The Things We Do To Make It Home, was a New York Times Notable Book, a Los Angeles Times Best Fiction, and a finalist for the Barnes & Nobles Discover Great Writers Award. Her book reviews and op-ed pieces have appeared in various newspapers and magazines. She is currently at work on her next novel, Who Do You Think You Are? [Read Essay Excerpt]
VIVIAN GORNICK is an essayist and a memoirist. She has written eight books, among them the noted Fierce Attachments and The End of the Novel of Love. [Read Essay Excerpt]
ANN HOOD is the author of seven novels, including Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine and Ruby; a memoir, Do Not Go Gentle: My Search for Miracles in a Cynical Age and a short story collection, An Ornithologist's Guide to Life. [Read Essay Excerpt]
NICOLE KEETER is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has appeared in Allure, Glamour, Interview and O the Oprah Magazine. She was previously a film critic for Time Out New York. [Read Essay Excerpt]
PATRICIA MARX writes comedy for movies, television, and print. Her books include Meet My Staff, illustrated by Roz Chast, and The Skinny co-written with Susan Sistrom. [Read Essay Excerpt]
LYDIA MILLET 's third novel, My Happy Life, won the 2003 PEN-USA Award for Fiction. 2005 sees the release of her fourth and fifth novels by Soft Skull Press: Everyone's Pretty and Oh Pure and Radiant Heart. [Read Essay Excerpt]
MARY MORRIS is the author of twelve books, including five novels, three collections of short stories, three travel memoirs and, along with her husband, Larry O'Connor, an anthology of travel literature. The recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, Morris teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence College. Her next novel Revenge, will be published by St. Martin's in 2005. [Read Essay Excerpt]
FRANCINE PROSE is the author of ten works of fiction, including Blue Angel, Household Saints, Hunters and Gatherers, Primitive People, and Guided Tours of Hell. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, GQ, and The Paris Review. She is a contributing editor at Harper's, and writes regularly on art for the Wall Street Journal. [Read Essay Excerpt]
KATIE ROIPHE is the author of Still She Haunts Me, and The Morning After. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Vogue, Esquire, MacSweeneys, Tin House and Harper's, among many other places. She holds a PhD in literature from Princeton University, and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and baby. [Read Essay Excerpt]
HELEN SCHULMAN is the author of the novels Out of Time, The Revisionist and P.S, which has recently been made into a feature film starring Laura Linney and Topher Grace. She has also published a story collection entitled Not A Free Show and co-edited, along with Jill Bialosky, the essay anthology Wanting A Child. Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in such places as Vanity Fair, Time, The New York Times, Vogue, GQ, Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine, The Paris Review, and Tin House. She is currently the Acting Fiction Coordinator at The Writing Program at the New School. [Read Essay Excerpt]
ELIZABETH STROUT is the author of the novel, Amy and Isabelle. Her short stories have appeared in a number of magazines, including the New Yorker. She makes her home in Brooklyn, New York. [Read Essay Excerpt]
EMILY WHITE is the author of Fast Girls: Teenage Tribes and the Myth of the Slut (Scribner). Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times Magazine,Nest, Bookforum, and The New York Times Book Review, and other venues. Her novel, The Third River, will be published by Clear Cut Press in 2005. She is currently at work on a book about disgraced celebrity money manager Dana Giacchetto and the 1990s. [Read Essay Excerpt]
