Courtship and What Comes After

Marie-Helene Bertino is the author of the novels Parakeet, 2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas, and the short story collection Safe as Houses, which was a recipient of the Iowa Short Fiction Award. She has also been honored with the O. Henry Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Hedgebrook Writers Colony, and the Center for Fiction. Her work has been featured in numerous publications, including Tin House, Granta, Guernica, Epoch, and Gigantic. Bertino teaches at NYU, The Institute of American Indian Arts in Sante Fe, and serves as Editor-at-Large for Catapult, an independent publisher. Her fourth book, the novel Beautyland, is forthcoming from FSG.

Jane Curtin has appeared on Broadway in Noises Off, Candida, and Our Town. Her off-Broadway work includes Love Letters and the musical revue Pretzels, which she co-wrote. She starred in the television series 3rd Rock from the Sun and won back-to-back Emmy Awards for her role on Kate & Allie. She is an original cast member of Saturday Night Live and also starred in the television film series The Librarian and its spin-off, The Librarians. Her film credits include Coneheads; Antz; I Love You, Man; I Don’t Know How She Does It; The Heat; The Spy Who Dumped Me; Can You Ever Forgive Me?; and Ode to Joy. She starred on the television series Unforgettable and has had guest appearances on The Good Wife, 48 Hours ’til Monday, The Good Fight, Broad City, United We Fall, and Godmothered. Curtin will appear in the forthcoming films Welcome to Pine Grove! and Never Too Late.

A. M. Homes is the author of the memoir The Mistress’s Daughter, the short story collections The Safety of Objects, Things You Should Know, Days of Awe, and the novels Jack, In a County of Mothers, The End of Alice, Music for Torching, This Book Will Save Your Life, and May We Be Forgiven, winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, NYFA, and The Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the NYPL, along with the Benjamin Franklin Award, and the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis. She has published fiction and essays in the New Yorker, Granta, Harper’s, McSweeney’s, One Story, TheNew York Times, and Vanity Fair, where she is a contributing editor. Additionally, she serves as Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of Yaddo and on the Board of Poets and Writers and teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Princeton.

Gildart Jackson is best known for his role on the reality television series Whodunnit? His film and television credits include The Big Brass Ring, General Hospital, Providence, Charmed, You, Atlas Shrugged: Part II, Burn Notice, Supernatural, The Young and the Restless, Feud, and The Bold Type. He has been featured on stage in regional productions of The Seagull, My Fair Lady, Private Eyes, and Tempest Redux at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles. He has narrated numerous audiobooks, including The Son and You Will Not Have My Hate, and is the voice of Flyseyes on Castlevania and Alfred Pennyworth in the upcoming video game Gotham Knights. Jackson will appear in the forthcoming films Medicine Men and Merrily.

Tanith Lee (1947 - 2015) was the first woman honored with the British Fantasy Award for her novel Death’s Master. Over the course of her career, Lee wrote dozens of novels and hundreds of short stories for children and adults. She twice won the World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction for her stories “The Gorgon” and “Elle Est Trois (La Mort).” Her novels include The Dragon’s Hoard, The Birthgrave, and the Flat-Earth Cycle series.

Sanjit De Silva’s theater credits include New York Theatre Workshop's production of An Ordinary Muslim, The Little Foxes, Troilus and Cressida, Dry Powder, Macbeth, The Ragged Claws, Awake and Sing, and on Broadway, War Horse. His film and television credits include Man on the Moon, Summer of Sam, The Company Men, The Girl Is In Trouble, August, Arranged, Time After Time, Madam Secretary, Blacklist, HIgh Maintenance, Elementary, Homeland, Evil, Tell Me a Story, Farewell Amor, and New Amsterdam. De Silva has co-written three plays with Deepa Purohit: Grace, Pulling the Lever, and American Family Project, and wrote, produced and co-directed the short film Time After.

Adina Verson was nominated for the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in The Lucky Ones, following her Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning play Indecent. Additional theater credits include The Servant of Two Masters at Theater for a New Audience, Seattle Rep, the Guthrie, and ArtsEmerson; As You Like It with the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC; Machine Makes Man, which she co-created with Michael McQuilken; Radio Island at New York Stage and Film; Collective Rage… at the MCC Theater, and Wives at Playwright’s Horizons. Verson’s screen credits include The Strain, Mozart in the Jungle, Wormwood, The Kitchen, New Amsterdam, and the short film To Walk or Run. Ms. Verson holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

Jenna Ushkowitz is best known for her leading role on Glee, as well as film roles in Yellow Fever, Hello Again, The Right Girl, 1 Night in San Diego, as well as the Katy Perry video for “Swish Swish,” and Rocky Horror Show: Livestream Theater. She has starred in Spring Awakening, Waitress, and The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway, and in regional productions of Hair and The Wedding Singer. She is the co-founder of the podcast network At Will Radio and the adoption advocacy group the Kindred Foundation. Ushkowitz won a Tony Award as a producer of the Broadway revival of Once on This Island.