Ways of Seeing

Ann Beattie is the author of several short story collections, including Distortions, Secrets and Surprises, The Burning House, Where You’ll Find Me, What Was Mine, Park City, Follies,The New Yorker Stories, The State We’re In, and The Accomplished Guest. She is also the author of the novels Chilly Scenes of Winter; Picturing Will; Another You; My Life, Starring Dara Falcon; and most recently, A Wonderful Stroke of Luck, among others. She received the PEN/Malamud Award in 2000 and the Rea Award for the Short Story in 2005, and she is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Mia Dillon is a Tony-nominated stage actress whose Broadway credits include Our Town, The Miser, The Corn Is Green, Hay Fever, Agnes of God, Once a Catholic, Crimes of the Heart, and Da. She has worked extensively off-Broadway and regionally from San Diego to Dublin, including her most recent appearance at The Hartford Stage in The Engagement Party. Previously at Hartford Stage she appeared in the world premiere of Seder, as well as Cloud Nine and A Song at Twilight. Her work has been honored with the CT Critics Circle Award, a Drama Desk nomination, the Clarence Derwent Award, a Barrymore Award nomination, and a Dramalogue Award. Film and TV appearances include all three Law & Orders, Brain Dead, The Jury, Mary and Rhoda, Gods and Generals, The Money Pit, Isn't It Delicious, Ordinary World, and All Good Things. Dillon has been a reader for Selected Shorts and Bloomsday at Symphony Space for more than 30 years.

Barry Lopez’s books include Arctic Dreams, for which he received the National Book Award; Crow and Weasel, a New York Times bestseller; Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape; and most recently, Horizon. His works of fiction include Light Action in the Caribbean, Field Notes, Resistance, and Outside. His essays are collected in Crossing Open Ground and About This Life. He contributes regularly to Harper’s, Granta, The Georgia Review, Freeman’s, Orion, Outside, and The Paris Review, among other publications. He has been honored with the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the John Hay and Christopher medals, Guggenheim, Lannan, and National Science Foundation fellowships, and awards from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Association of American Geographers, and the New York Public Library. Lopez was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2020.

Maulik Pancholy is an actor, author, and activist. He is best known for his television roles on 30 Rock, Weeds, Whitney, The Good Fight, and for lending his voice to the long-running animated series Phineas & Ferb and Sanjay & Craig. He starred on Broadway in Terrence McNally’s It's Only a Play and in The New Group’s production of Good for Otto. He recently returned to Broadway in Bess Wohl’s Grand Horizons at the Helen Hayes Theatre. Pancholy’s debut novel, The Best at It, was named a Stonewall Honor Book and received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and American Library Association’s Booklist. Pancholy is the co-founder of the anti-bullying organization ActToChange.org.

Joe Spano won an Emmy Award for his work in Midnight Caller. He is best known for his leading roles in Hill Street Blues and NCIS. Additional film and television credits include American Graffiti, Apollo 13, Amazing Grace, Murder One, Mercy Point, Texas Rangers, NYPD Blue, Fracture, Frost/Nixon, The Mentalist, and Pearson, among others. He made his Broadway debut in the Roundabout Theatre production of Arthur Miller’s The Price. West Coast stage credits include David Mamet’s Speed the Plow, American Buffalo, for which he was honored with an L.A. Drama Critics' Circle Award, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Equivocation, The Sunset Limited, Better, and The End Times. He is a founding member of three theater companies, including Berkeley Repertory.