George Saunders is the author of nine books, including the novel Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Man Booker Prize, the story collections Pastoralia and Tenth of December, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He has received fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 2006 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2013 he was awarded the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction and was included in Time’s list of the one hundred most influential people in the world. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University.

Nick Offerman is the New York Times bestselling author of Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living, Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom With America’s Gutsiest Troublemakers, and Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop, as well as co-author of The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, with his wife, Megan Mullally. Nick and Megan live in Los Angeles, California, with their pups and a fairly decent collection of assorted wood clamps.

John Freeman is the editor of Freeman's, a literary annual of new writing, and executive editor of Literary Hub. His books include How to Read a Novelist and Dictionary of the Undoing, as well as Tales of Two Americas, an anthology about income inequality in America, and Tales of Two Planets, an anthology of new writing about inequality and the climate crisis globally. He is also the author of two collections of poems, Maps and The Park. His work has been translated into more than twenty languages and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The New York Times. The former editor of Granta, he teaches writing at New York University.

Sandra Cisneros is a poet, short story writer, novelist, and essayist whose work explores the lives of the working class. Her numerous awards include NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction, the Texas Medal of the Arts, a MacArthur Fellowship, the PEN/Nabokov Award for International Literature, and the National Medal of the Arts, awarded to her by President Obama in 2016. Her novel The House on Mango Street has sold over six million copies, has been translated into over twenty languages, and is required reading in elementary, high school, and universities across the nation. A new book, Martita, I Remember You/Martita, te recuerdo, a story in English and in Spanish, will be published in 2021. Cisneros is a dual citizen of the United States and Mexico and earns her living by her pen.

Manuel Muñoz is the author of two collections of short stories, Zigzagger and The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue, which was shortlisted for the 2007 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. His first novel, What You See in the Dark, was published in 2011. Three of his short stories have received the O. Henry Prize, and one was chosen for inclusion in Best American Short Stories. The Consequences, Muñoz’sthird collection, will be published by Graywolf Press.

George Saunders is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of ten books, including Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Man Booker Prize; Congratulations, by the way; Tenth of December, a finalist for the National Book Award; The Braindead Megaphone; and the critically acclaimed short story collections CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, Pastoralia, and In Persuasion Nation. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University.

George Saunders is the author of nine books, including the New York Times bestsellers Congratulations, by the way and Tenth of December, the essay collection The Braindead Megaphone, and the critically acclaimed short story collections CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, Pastoralia, and In Persuasion Nation. He regularly writes short stories for The New Yorker and travel pieces for GQ, and his work has appeared in the O’Henry, “Best American Short Story,” “Best Non-Required Reading,” “Best American Travel Writing,” and “Best Science Fiction” anthologies. He’s made special appearances on The Charlie Rose Show, Late Night with David Letterman, and The Colbert Report. Saunders has received fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Guggenheim Foundation and, in 2006, was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2013, he was awarded the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction and was included in Time’s list of the one hundred most influential people in the world. Michiko Kakutani wrote in The New York Times, “No one writes more powerfully than George Saunders,” and Zadie Smith wrote of his work, “Not since Twain has America produced a satirist this funny.” Saunders has taught in the Creative Writing Program at Syracuse University since 1996, and he lives in the Catskills. Lincoln in the Bardo is Saunders’ long-awaited first novel.

Anthony Marra is the bestselling author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, winner of the National Book Critics Circle’s inaugural John Leonard Prize. This debut novel about the transcendent power of love in wartime was hailed by The New York Times as “brilliant” and topped many “best books” lists of 2013, including New York Magazine, Chicago Tribune, NPR, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Kirkus Reviews, and Publisher’s Weekly, among many others. Marra’s latest work, The Tsar of Love and Techno, is a collection of lyrical interwoven stories about family, sacrifice, the legacy of war, and the redemptive power of art. This collection was a finalist for the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction. Novelist Francine Prose wrote of Marra’s stories, “Reading his work is like watching the restoration—the reappearance, on the page—of those whom history has erased.” His work has been honored with the National Magazine Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and the Guggenheim Fellowship, among others. He teaches at Stanford University as the Jones Lecturer in Fiction. He has lived and studied in Eastern Europe and now resides in Oakland, California.

Phil LaMarr was one of the original cast members of Mad TV and an alumnus of Yale University and The Groundlings Theater. He is known for his work in Pulp Fiction and for his extensive voice-over work, including animated shows Futurama, Samurai Jack, Justice League, Family Guy and Bojack Horseman, and video games like Injustice, Shadow of Mordor and Mortal Kombat X. He can currently be seen in this season of HBO’s Veep and in The Black Version improv comedy show monthly at Largo At The Coronet.

Bernard Cooper is an author of The Bill From My Father, and the recipient of many awards, including the PEN/USA Ernest Hemingway Award, O. Henry Prize, a Guggenheim grant, and a National Endowment of the Arts fellowship in literature.  His work has appeared in several anthologies, magazines, and literary reviews, including five volumes of The Best American Essays, Harper's Magazine, The Paris Review, Story, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, and The New York Times Magazine. He has contributed to National Public Radio's "This American Life", and Los Angeles Magazine. Mr. Cooper currently teaches in writing programs at Bennington College and USC.

George Saunders, a MacArthur Genius Grant fellow, is the acclaimed author of several collections of short stories, including Pastoralia and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, as well as a collection of essays and a book for children. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University. His most recent work is a collection of short stories, Tenth of December.

Sarah Shun-lien Bynum is the author of two novels, Ms. Hempel Chronicles, a finalist for the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award, and Madeleine Is Sleeping, a finalist for the 2004 National Book Award. Her fiction has appeared in many magazines and anthologies, including the New Yorker, Tin House, the Georgia Review, and the Best American Short Stories 2004 and 2009. The recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award and an NEA Fellowship, she was named one of the "20 Under 40" fiction writers by the New Yorker. She teaches in the Graduate Writing Program at Otis College of Art and Design.