Jane Kaczmarek is best known for her role as Lois on Malcolm in the Middle, for which she received 7 consecutive Emmy nominations as well as nominations for the Golden Globe and SAG Awards. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin and Yale School of Drama, Kaczmarek made her television debut on The Paper Chase and Hill Street Blues. On stage, she has appeared on Broadway and off, and for 6 seasons at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Her recent theater credits include Long Day's Journey Into Night with Alfred Molina and Our Town with Deaf West Theatre. Kaczmarek’s favorite job is raising her three kids and reading/hosting Selected Shorts across America.
Naomi Kritzer is a science fiction and fantasy writer living in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her 2015 short story “Cat Pictures Please” was a Locus Award and Hugo Award winner, and was nominated for a Nebula Award. A subsequent short story collection of the same title followed in 2017. Kritzer’s novels include the Freedom series, Turning the Storm, Fires of the Faithful, and the young adult novel Catfishing on CatNet, which was honored with a Minnesota Book Award, an Edgar Award, and a Nautilus Silver. Her latest book, Chaos on CatNet, came out in 2021.
Rachel Khong’s debut novel, Goodbye, Vitamin, was honored with the California Book Award for First Fiction and named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, O magazine, Vogue, Esquire, Huffington Post, Nylon, and Booklist, among other publications. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, American Short Fiction, The Cut, and The San Francisco Chronicle. She previously served as Executive Editor of Lucky Peach.
Annie Q. began her professional acting career on the stage, playing the title role in Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang’s Golden Child at the Signature Theatre. She is best known for her role as Christine in HBO’s The Leftovers and as Sophie Hicks in Netflix’s Alex Strangelove. Her recent work includes the back-to-school installment of Hulu’s Into the Dark, where she starred as Blumhouse’s first Asian-American lead. Annie grew up between Beijing and New York City and studied at LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts. She can currently be seen in the role of Juliette Tan on HBO Max and the CW's Kung Fu.
Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Female Persuasion, The Interestings, The Ten-Year Nap, and The Wife, which was adapted to film in 2018, starring Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce. She was the guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 2017, and has also published books for young readers, mostly recently a picture book, Millions of Maxes. Wolitzer is a faculty member in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton, where she co-founded and co-directs BookEnds, a one-year, non-credit intensive in the novel. She is excited to be the new host of the literary radio show and podcast Selected Shorts.
CREDITS
Adapted from Rachel Khong’s story “My Dear You,” first published by Tin House Magazine. Copyright © 2017 by Rachel Khong. Used by permission of Janklow & Nesbit.
"Isabella's Garden" by Naomi Kritzer, first appeared in Realms of Fantasy. Copyright © 2011 by Naomi Kritzer. Used by permission of the author.
