Marie-Helene Bertino is the author of the novels Beautyland, Parakeet, a New York Times Editor’s Choice, 2 A.M.. at The Cat’s Pajamas, and the short story collection Safe as Houses. Awards include the O. Henry Prize, the Pushcart Prize, the Iowa Short Fiction Award, and the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Fellowship in Cork, Ireland. She has taught for NYU, The New School, and Institute for American Indian Arts. She currently teaches in the Creative Writing program at Yale University. Her second short story collection Exit Zero: Stories is forthcoming in 2025.
Santino Fontana is known for his Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, and Tony Award–winning portrayal of Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels in the Broadway production of Tootsie, and for voicing the character Prince Hans in Disney’s Academy Award–winning animated feature Frozen. With Encores!, he has starred in off-Broadway productions of God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater; 1776; and Zorba. On Broadway, he has starred in The Importance of Being Earnest, for which he won a Clarence Derwent Award; Brighton Beach Memoirs (Drama Desk Award); Act One; Billy Elliot; Cinderella (Tony nomination); and Hello, Dolly! His onscreen credits include the currently airing Grotesquerie, as well as The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Sisters, Shades of Blue, Mozart in the Jungle, Submissions Only, Off the Menu, Fosse/Verdon, and Evil, with forthcoming roles in Lost & Found in Cleveland and his film directing debut in Death Wish. Fontana recently starred in the Classic Stage Company’s revival of I Can Get it for You Wholesale, for which he received Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk Award nominations.
Tom Perrotta is the bestselling author of ten works of fiction, including Election and Little Children, both of which were made into critically acclaimed movies, and The Leftovers and Mrs. Fletcher, which were adapted into HBO series. His most recent novel, Tracy Flick Can’t Win, was published in 2022, with Reese Witherspoon set to star in the forthcoming movie adaptation for Paramount+.
Amber Tamblyn is an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit Award–nominated actress, writer, and director, who was recently seen in the 2023 film You Hurt My Feelings. She is the author of seven books, including the critically acclaimed Era of Ignition: Coming of Age in a Time of Rage and Revolution. Her latest book, Listening in the Dark, is an anthology reclaiming the power of women's intuition. Tamblyn reviews books of poetry by women for Bust and is a contributing writer for TheNew York Times and The Cut, writing on themes of gender inequality and women's rage.
Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Female Persuasion, The Interestings, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, and The Wife. She is a faculty member in the Creative Writing and Literature Program at The Lichtenstein Center at Stony Brook University, where she co-founded and co-directs BookEnds, a one-year, non-credit intensive for emerging novelists. Wolitzer, who was the guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 2017, is the radio and podcast host of Symphony Space’s Selected Shorts.
CREDITS
“A Woman Driving Alone” was commissioned by Symphony Space for the collection Small Odysseys: Selected Shorts Presents 35 New Stories, edited by Hannah Tinti, published by Algonquin Books. © 2022 by Symphony Space.
“Nine Inches” by Tom Perrotta, from Nine Inches (St. Martin’s Press, 2013). Copyright © 2013 by Tom Perrotta. Used by permission of Massie & McQuilkin Literary Agents.
