First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing

First Draft - Devon O'Neil

29 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Devon O’Neil is a freelance journalist based in Breckenridge, Colorado, and the author of The Way Out: A true story of survival in the Heart of th...

First Draft 12th Anniversary Best Of - Michael Kleber Diggs

26 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Kleber-Diggs is a poet, essayist, and literary critic. He was born and raised in Kansas and now makes his home in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His d...

First Draft - Elizabeth McCracken (Returns 4th Time)

22 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth McCracken is the author of nine books: Here’s Your Hat What’s Your Hurry, The Giant’s House, Niagara Falls All Over Again, An Exac...

First Draft - Ruben Reyes Jr.

15 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ruben Reyes Jr. is the son of two Salvadoran immigrants. He completed his MFA in fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He is a graduate of Harvard...

First Draft - Megha Majumdar

08 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Megha Majumdar is the author of the novel A Guardian and a Thief, which is Oprah’s Book Club selection for October 2025. The novel is a finalist f...

First Draft - Paula Saunders

01 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Paula Saunders is a graduate of the Syracuse University creative writing program and was awarded a postgraduate Albert Schweitzer Fellowship at the S...

First Draft - 12th Anniversary Best Of - Diane Seuss

28 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Diane Seuss is the author of the poetry collections Frank: Sonnets, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; Still Lif...

First Draft - Tracy K. Smith (Returns)

24 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy K. Smith is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, memoirist, editor, translator and librettist. She served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United Sta...

First Draft - Stewart O'Nan

17 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Stewart O’Nan’s award-winning fiction includes Snow Angels, A Prayer for the Dying, Last Night at the Lobster, and Emily, Alone. His 2007 novel,...

First Draft - Angela Flournoy

10 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Angela Flournoy’s debut novel The Turner House was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the VCU Cabell First Novel Prize and was a final...

First Draft- Jonathan Parks-Ramage

03 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jonathan Parks-Ramage is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter and journalist. He is also the author of the novel Yes, Daddy named one of the best q...

First Draft - 12th Anniversary Best Of - Ben Okri

31 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ben Okri is a poet, novelist, essayist, short story writer, anthologist, aphorist, and playwright. He has also written film scripts. His works have wo...

First Draft - Jaquira Diaz

27 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jaquira Díaz was raised between Humacao, Fajardo, Puerto Rico and Miami Beach. She is the author of Ordinary Girls: A Memoir, winner of a Whiting ...

First Draft - Peter Orner (Pete for the 5-Peat)

20 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Orner is the author of seven acclaimed books including Maggie Brown & Others, Love and Shame and Love, Esther Stories, finalist for the Pen/...

First Draft - Jane Hamilton

13 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Hamilton lives, works, and writes in an orchard farmhouse in Wisconsin. Her short stories have appeared in Harper's magazine. Her first novel, T...

First Draft - Ada Limón (Returns Again)

06 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ada Limón is the author of seven books of poetry, including Startlement: New & Selected Poems; The Hurting Kind, which was a finalist for the Griff...

First Draft - Jason Mott

29 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jason Mott is the author of two poetry collections, including We Call This Thing Between Us Love and five novels including The Returned, which was...

First Draft - 12th Anniversary Best Of - Abby Geni

26 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is the fourth in the 12 for 12 Best of the last dozen years of First Draft in honor of the 12th anniversary. Abby Geni is the author of the nov...

First Draft - Reginald Dwayne Betts

22 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet, lawyer, and CEO and Founder of Freedom Reads, a not-for-profit organization that is radically transforming the acc...

First Draft - Nini Berndt and Evie Bromiley

15 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Nini Berndt is a graduate of the University of Florida's MFA program in Fiction. Her first novel is There Are Reasons for This. She teaches writing...

First Draft - Caleb Gayle

08 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Caleb Gayle is an award-winning journalist who writes about race and identity and is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine. His writ...

First Draft - Betsy Lerner

01 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Betsy Lerner is the author of the recently released novel, Shred Sisters. She is also the author The Bridge Ladies, The Forest for the Trees an...

First Draft - 12th Anniversary Best of - Tracy K. Smith

29 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy K. Smith is the author of five poetry collections, including Such Color: New and Selected Poems; Wade in the Water, winner of the 2019 Anisfield...

First Draft - Rachel Cockerell

25 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Rachel Cockerell was born and raised in London, the sixth of seven children. Melting Point is her first nonfiction book. Her research has taken her...

First Draft - Joy Harjo

18 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Joy Harjo was the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation.  She is the author of more than ten books of poet...

First Draft - Princess Joy L. Perry

11 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Princess Joy L. Perry is the recipient of a Virginia Commission for the Arts Fellowship and a winner of the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award. ...

First Draft - Ed Park

04 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ed Park is  the author of the novels Same Bed Different Dreams, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a...

First Draft - Torrey Peters

28 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Torrey Peters is the author of the novel Detransition, Baby, which won the 2021 PEN/Hemingway award for debut fiction and was named a Best Book o...

First Draft - 12th Anniversary Best of - Sue Monk Kidd

25 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sue Monk Kidd writes fiction and non-fiction. Her novels include The Secret Life of Bees, The Mermaid Chair, The Invention of Wings, and The Book of ...

First Draft - Kristin Koval

21 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Kristin Koval is a former lawyer who always wanted to be a writer but initially wandered down other paths. She attended Phillips Exeter Academy, Geor...

First Draft - Robert Macfarlane

14 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Macfarlane is a British writer internationally known for his writing on nature, people, and place.  His best-selling books include Underland...

First Draft - Andrew Porter (returns)

07 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Andrew Porter is the author of four books, including the short story collection The Theory of Light and Matter, which won the Flannery O’Connor Aw...

First Draft - André Alexis

30 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

André Alexis was born in Trinidad and grew up in Canada. His novel, Fifteen Dogs, won the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers’ Tr...

First Draft - 12th Anniversary Best of - Salar Abdoh

27 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Salar Abdoh is the author of Out of Mesopotamia, Tehran at Twilight, Opium, and The Poet Game, and editor and translator of the celebrated crime co...

First Draft - Lori Ostlund

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Lori Ostlund is the author of After the Parade, which was a Barnes & Noble Discover pick and a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Pri...

First Draft - Ethan Rutherford (Returns Again)

16 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

  Ethan Rutherford’s new novel is The North Sun or the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther. He is the author of two story collections—Farthest Sout...

First Draft - Shelley Read

09 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Shelley Read’s debut novel, Go as a River, is an international bestseller that has been translated into thirty-four languages and is in development ...

First Draft: Madeleine Thien

02 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Madeleine Thien is the author of four books, including Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her work has appeared...

First Draft - Lauren Groff (Returns)

26 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Lauren Groff is a three-time National Book Award finalist and The New YorkTimes–bestselling author of the novels The Monsters of Templeton, Arcad...

First Draft - Kate Folk

19 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Kate Folk is the author of the novel Sky Daddy and the short story collection Out There. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in the New Yor...

First Draft - Bob Johnson

12 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Bob Johnson is an award-winning short story writer and graduate of the lowa Writers’ Workshop. His work has been published by The Common, Philadel...

First Draft - Lynn Steger Strong

05 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Lynn Steger Strong is the author of the novels Hold Still, Want, Flight and The Float Test. Her non-fiction has appeared in The New York Times, Los An...

First Draft - Vauhini Vara

28 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Vauhini Vara has been a reporter and editor for The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and the New York Times Magazine, and is the prize-winning author of...

First Draft - Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda

21 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda is a literary translator.  Born in Tokyo, and raised in Texas, she is the co-translator of Ryke Akutagawa’s Kappa and the t...

First Draft - Lynne Tillman

14 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Lynne Tillman is a novelist, short story writer, and cultural critic. Her novels are Haunted Houses; Motion Sickness; Cast in Doubt; No Lease on Lif...

First Draft - Colum McCann

07 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Colum McCann is the Dublin-born author of thirteen books. He has won numerous international honors including the U.S National Book Award and an Oscar...

First Draft - Karen Russell (Returns)

31 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Karen Russell is the author of six books of fiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove. She ...

First Draft - Mai Der Vang

24 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Mai Der Vang is the author of Primordial, Yellow Rain, and Afterland. Her honors include th Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of Americ...

First Draft - Erika Krouse

17 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Erika Krouse writes fiction and nonfiction.   Her book Tell me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigationwon the Colorado Book Award for Cre...

First Draft - Sarah Gerard (returns again)

10 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Gerard is the author of the essay collection Sunshine State, a New York Times Critics’ and NPR Best Book of the Year, a finalist for the Sou...

First Draft - Charlotte Wood (Returns)

03 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Charlotte Wood is the author of seven novels and three books of non-fiction. Her novel Stone Yard Devotional was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker P...

First Draft - Paul Theroux

24 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Paul Theroux is the author of many highly acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction, including The Great Railway Bazaar, The Mosquito Coast, Riding...

First Draft - Lidia Yuknavitch (Returns Again)

17 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Lidia Yuknavitch is the National Bestselling author of the novels Thrust, The Book of Joan and The Small Backs of Children, winner of the 2016 Ore...

First Draft - Sarah Chihaya

10 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Chihaya is a book critic, essayist, and editor. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, New York m...

First Draft - Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

03 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer has been writing and sharing a poem a day since 2006—a practice that especially nourished her after the death of her teena...

First Draft - Alan Shapiro

27 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Alan Shapiro was born in Boston, Massachusetts and graduated from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Shapiro has published fourteen poetry...

First Draft - David Wrobelwski

20 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

David Wroblewski is the author, most recently, of the novel Familiaris, his followup to the internationally bestselling The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle...

Paolo Bacigalupi

13 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Paolo Bacigalupi is an internationally bestselling author of speculative fiction. He has won the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, John W. Campbell and L...

First Draft - Claire Messud and Amitava Kumar on Literary Friendship

06 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This episode on literary friendship with Claire Messud and Amitava Kumar was recorded live at Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver, Colorado at the J...

First Draft - Boyce Upholt

30 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Boyce Upholt is a journalist and essayist whose writing has appeared in the Atlantic, National Geographic, the Oxford American, and Virginia Quar...

Best of 2024 - Kevin Barry

27 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kevin Barry is the author of the novels Night Boat to Tangier, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize, Beatlebone, and City of Bohane as well...

First Draft - Amina Gautier (Returns)

23 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Amina Gautier is the author of four short story collections: At-Risk, Now We Will Be Happy, The Loss of All Lost Things, and The Best that You Can ...

Best of 2024 - Kiley Reid

20 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kiley Reid is the author of Come and Get It and Such A Fun Age, which was a New York Times Best Seller and longlisted for the 2020 Booker Price. Her w...

First Draft - Simon Rich

16 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Simon Rich has written for “Saturday Night Live,” Pixar and “The Simpsons.” He is the creator and showrunner of “Man Seeking Woman” (FXX) ...

Best of 2024 - Julia Alvarez

13 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is a selection for the Best of 2024 of First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing. Julia Alvarez has written novels including How the García Girls Lost...

First Draft - Anna Noyes (Returns)

09 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Anna Noyes's debut novel is The Blue Maiden and was a New York Times Editors' Choice, with starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Forward....

First Draft - Elizabeth Rosner

02 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth Rosner is a bestselling novelist, poet, and essayist. Her works include Survivor Café: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory, ...

First Draft - Maggie Smith

25 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Maggie Smith is the author of the national bestsellers Goldenrod and Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change, as well as Good Bones, named ...

First Draft - Edward Hirsch

18 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Edward Hirsch is a celebrated poet and peerless advocate for poetry. Edward Hirsch’s first collection of poems, For the Sleepwalkers received the De...

First Draft: Megan Pinto

11 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Megan Pinto is the author of Saints of Little Faith, her debut collection.  Her poems can be found in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Ploughshar...

First Draft - Tracy O'Neill

04 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy O'Neill is the author of the memoir Woman of Interest. Her novels include The Hopeful, one of Electric Literature's Best Novels of 2015; and...

First Draft - Charles Baxter (Returns Yet Again)

28 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Charles Baxter is the author of the novels The Feast of Love, nominated for the National Book Award, First Light, Saul and Patsy, Shadow Play, The ...

First Draft - Edwidge Danticat (Returns)

21 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Edwidge Danticat is the author of several books, including Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club selection, Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award ...

First Draft - Elizabeth Strout (Returns Again)

14 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth Strout is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Lucy by the Sea; Oh William!, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Olive,...

First Draft - Richard Powers (Returns)

07 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Powers is the author of fourteen novels, including Bewilderment, The Overstory, and Orfeo.  He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, ...

First Draft - Alan Townsend

30 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Alan Townsend is a scientist, author and Dean of the Franke College of Forestry & Conservation at the University of Montana. His writing has appe...

First Draft: Natalie Goldberg

23 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Natalie Goldberg is the author of fifteen books, including Writing Down the Bones, which has sold over one million copies and has been translated in...

First Draft - Lorrie Moore

16 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Lorrie Moore is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English at Vanderbilt University. She is the recipient of a Lannan Foundation Fellowship,...

First Draft - Jessica Shattuck

09 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jessica Shattuck is The New York Times Bestselling author of the novels Last House, The Women in the Castle, a New York Times Bestseller, #1 Ind...

First Draft - Kaliane Bradley

02 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kaliane Bradley is a British-Cambodian writer and editor based in London. Her short fiction has appeared in Somesuch Stories, The Willowherb Review,...

First Draft - Carl Phillips

26 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Carl Phillips is the author of 17 books of poetry, most recently Scattered Snows, to the North and Then the War: And Selected Poems 2007-2020, whi...

First Draft - Jodi Picoult

19 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 29 novels, including By Any Other Name, Mad Honey, Wish You Were Here, and My Sister's ...

First Draft - Abby Geni

12 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Abby Geni is the author of the novels The Wildlands and The Lightkeepers and the short story collections The Last Animal and The Body Farm. He...

First Draft - Jill Ciment (Returns)

05 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jill Ciment is the author of Small Claims, a collection of short stories and novellas; The Law of Falling Bodies, Teeth of the Dog, The Tattoo Arti...

First Draft - Kevin Barry (Returns)

29 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kevin Barry is the author of the novels Night Boat to Tangier, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize, Beatlebone, and City of Bohane as well...

First Draft - Amitava Kumar (Returns)

22 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

 Amitava Kumar is a writer and journalist. He was born in Ara, and grew up in the nearby town of Patna, famous for its corruption, crushing poverty ...

First Draft - Ada Limón (and friends)

15 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ada Limón the author of six books of poetry, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her book Bright Dead Things...

First Draft - Tracy Chevalier

08 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy Chevalier is the author of 11 novels and the editor of one short story anthology.  Her books include Girl with a Pearl Earring, Falling Ange...

First Draft - Tommy Orange

01 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tommy Orange is a graduate of the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts where he now teaches. An enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Ar...

First Draft - Lauren Camp

24 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Lauren Camp is the author of eight poetry collections including Worn Smooth between Devourings, An Eye in Each Square, Took House, and In Old Sky ...

First Draft - Stacey D’Erasmo (Returns)

17 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Stacey D’Erasmo is the author of the novels Tea, A Seahorse Year, The Sky Below, Wonderland, and The Complicities and the nonfiction books The...

First Draft - Carvell Wallace

10 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Carvell Wallace is a New York Times Bestselling author, memoirist, and award-winning podcaster who covers race, arts, culture, film and music for a w...

First Draft - Claire Messud (Returns Again)

03 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Claire Messud is the author of six works of fiction. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships and the Strauss Living Award from t...

First Draft - Edward Hamlin

27 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Edward Hamlin is the author of the short story collection Night in Erg Chebbi: Stories and the novel Sonata in Wax.  His writing has been publi...

First Draft - Adelle Waldman

20 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Adelle Waldman is the author of the novels, Help Wanted and The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P., which was published in 2013 and was named one of tha...

First Draft - Sunjeev Sahota

13 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sunjeev Sahota is the author of the novels: China Room, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize and a finalist for the American Library Associatio...

First Draft - Steve Almond

06 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Steve Almond is the author of twelve books of fiction and nonfiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Football. Hi...

First Draft - Anne Lamott

29 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Anne Lamott is the author of 20 books, which include fiction and nonfiction. Her novels include Hard Laughter, Blue Shoe, and Imperfect Birds. Her n...

First Draft - Marie Mutsuki Mockett (Returns)

22 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Marie Mutsuki Mockett is the author of the novels Picking Bones from the Ash and The Tree Doctor.  Her nonfiction books include American Harvest...

First Draft - Julia Alvarez

15 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Julia Alvarez has written novels including How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, In the Time of the Butterflies, ¡Yo!, In the Name of Salomé, Sa...