First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing

First Draft - Lily Brooks-Dalton

08 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Lily Brooks-Dalton is the bestselling author of The Light Pirate, which was the runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, a #1 Indie Next pick,...

First Draft - Kiley Reid

01 Apr 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 - Debra Spark (Returns Again)

26 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Debra Spark is the award-winning author of five novels, including Unknown Caller, which was picked for Maine’s statewide summer READ ME program. ...

First Draft - Téa Obreht (Returns)

18 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Téa Obreht is the author of the novel The Tiger’s Wife, which won the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction, and was a 2011 National Book Award finalist a...

First Draft - DIane Seuss (Returns)

11 Mar 2024

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 - Sloane Crosley

04 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sloane Crosley is the author of The New York Times bestselling essay collections, I Was Told There’d Be Cake, How Did You Get This Number, and Look ...

First Draft - Temim Fruchter

26 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Temim Fruchter is a queer nonbinary Jewish writer who lives in Brooklyn. She holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Maryland and is the recip...

First Draft - Leslie Jamison (Returns Again)

19 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Leslie Jamison is the author of two essay collections— The Empathy Exams and Make It Scream, Make It Burn—a critical memoir, The Recovering, ...

First Draft - Margot Livesey (Returns)

12 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Margot Livesey has published ten novels: Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, Banishing Verona, The House on Fortune Stree...

First Draft - Kaveh Akbar

05 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kaveh Akbar's poems appear in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Paris Review, Best American Poetry,and elsewhere. He is the author of two poetry c...

First Draft - Ilyon Woo

29 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ilyon Woo is the is the New York Times best-selling author of Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom, one of the Ne...

First Draft - Jill McCorkle

22 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jill McCorkle is the author of four short story collections and seven novels including the New York Timesbestseller Life After Life.  Five of her...

First Draft - Vanessa Chan

15 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Vanessa Chan is the author of the novel The Storm We Made and the story collection The Ugliest Babies in the World.  Her other work has been pub...

First Draft - Antoine Wilson

08 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Antoine Wilson is the author of the novel Mouth to Mouth, which was featured on Barack Obama’s 2022 Summer Reading List.  His other novels inclu...

First Draft - Buzzy Jackson

01 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Buzzy Jackson has a Ph.D. in History from UC Berkeley and is a member of the National Book Critics’ Circle. Her debut novel is To Die Beautiful. S...

First Draft - David James Duncan

25 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

David James Duncan is the author of the novels The River Why, The Brothers K, and Sun House, the story collection River Teeth, and the nonfictio...

First Draft - Paul Harding (Returns)

18 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Paul Harding is the author of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel Tinkers.  His other novels include Enon and This Other Eden, which was short lis...

First Draft: Michael Cunningham (Returns)

11 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Cunningham is a novelist, screenwriter, and educator. His novel The Hours received the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fictio...

First Draft - Salar Abdoh

04 Dec 2023

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 - Alice McDermott (Returns Again)

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alice McDermott is the author of nine novels, including Charming Billy, winner of the National Book Award, and That Night, At Weddings and Wakes, and ...

First Draft - Ayana Mathis

20 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ayana Mathis’s first novel, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, was a New York Times Bestseller, second selection for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0, a 2013 New Y...

First Draft - Edgar Kunz

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Edgar Kunz is the author of two poetry collections: Fixer, named a New York Times Editors’ Choice book, and Tap Out. He has been a National Endowmen...

First Draft - Tan Twan Eng

06 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tan Twan Eng’s debut novel The Gift of Rain was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2007 and has been widely translated. His second novel The Garden ...

First Draft - Richard Deming

30 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Deming is a poet, art critic, and theorist whose work explores the intersections of poetry, philosophy, and visual culture. His collection of ...

First Draft - Jenn Shapland

23 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jenn Shapland is a writer living in New Mexico. Her first book, My Autobiography of Carson McCullers, was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award ...

First Draft - Ben Fountain (Returns)

16 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ben Fountain’s work has received the Los Angeles Book Prize for Fiction, and a Whiting Writers Award, and has been a finalist for the National Book ...

First Draft - Daniel Magariel

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Daniel Magariel is an author from Kansas City. One of the Boys, his first novel, a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice and Amazon Best Book of ...

First Draft - Etaf Rum

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Etaf Rum was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants. She has a Masters of Arts in American and British Li...

First Draft - Edan Lepucki (Returns)

25 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Edan Lepucki is the author of the novella If You’re Not Yet Like Me and the novels California, Woman No. 17, and Time’s Mouth. She is a graduate o...

First Draft - James McBride

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

James McBride is an award-winning author, musician, and screenwriter. His landmark memoir, The Color of Water, published in 1996, has sold millions of...

First Draft - Rachel Eliza Griffiths

11 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Rachel Eliza Griffiths is a poet, visual artist, and novelist. She is a recipient of the Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award and the Paterson Poetr...

First Draft - David van den Berg

04 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

David van den Berg grew up hunting and fishing in the Florida swamps. He studied anthropology, religion, and archaeology at Rollins College before mo...

First Draft - Roger Reeves

28 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Roger Reeves earned his PhD from the University of Texas, Austin, and is the author of Dark Days: Fugitive Essays; Best Barbarian; and King Me, winner...

First Draft - Jenny Qi

21 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jenny Qi is the author of Focal Point, winner of the 2020 Steel Toe Books Poetry Prize and a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize. Her essays and po...

First Draft - Jennifer Grotz

14 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jennifer Grotz is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Still Falling. Also a translator from French and Polish, her co-translations with ...

First Draft - Luis Alberto Urrea

07 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Luis Alberto Urrea was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his landmark work of nonfiction The Devil’s Highway. He is the author of numerous othe...

First Draft - Hernan Diaz

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hernan Diaz is the Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author of two novels translated into thirty-five languages. His first novel,...

First Draft - Alice Elliott Dark

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alice Elliott Dark is the author of the novels Fellowship Point and Think of England, and two collections of short stories, In The Gloaming and Naked ...

First Draft - Stephen Buoro

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Stephen Buoro was born in Nigeria in 1993. He has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia where he received the Booker Prize Fou...

First Draft - Elizabeth Graver

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth Graver is the author of five novels, including Kantika, which was inspired by her grandmother, Rebecca née Cohen Baruch Levy, who was born ...

First Draft - Adrienne Brodeur (Returns)

03 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Adrienne Brodeur is the author of the memoir Wild Game, which was selected as a Best Book of the Year by NPR and The Washington Post and is in dev...

First Draft - Michelle Brafman (Returns)

26 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Michelle Brafman is the author of the short story collection Bertrand Court and the novels Washing the Dead and Swimming with Ghosts. She taught crea...

First Draft - TC Boyle

19 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

TC Boyle is the author of 30 books of fiction including most recently, Blue Skies, The Harder They Come, The Terranauts, The Relive Box, Outside Look...

First Draft - T.J. Newman

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

T.J. Newman is a former bookseller and flight attendant whose first novel, Falling, became a publishing sensation and debuted at number two on the New...

First Draft - Sebastian Barry

05 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955. His plays include of Boss Grady’s Boys, The Steward of Christendom, Our Lady of Sligo, The Pride Parnell...

First Draft - Mona Simpson

29 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mona Simpson is the best-selling author of Anywhere But Here, The Lost Father, A Regular Guy, Off Keck Road, My Hollywood, and Casebook. Off Keck Road...

First Draft - Curtis Sittenfeld (Returns)

22 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Curtis Sittenfeld is the bestselling author of six novels: Prep, The Man of My Dreams, American Wife, Sisterland, Eligible, and Rodham. Her first stor...

First Draft - Abraham Verghese

15 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Abraham Verghese, MD, MACP, is Professor and Linda R. Meier and Joan F. Lane Provostial Professor, and Vice Chair for the Theory and Practice of Medic...

First Draft - Mai Nardone

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mai Nardone is a Thai and American writer whose fiction has appeared in American Short Fiction, Granta, McSweeney’s, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. He...

First Draft - Ann Lauterbach

01 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ann Lauterbach is the author of ten books of poetry and three books of essays, including The Night Sky: Writings on the Poetics of Experience and The ...

First Draft - Andrew Porter

24 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Andrew Porter is the author of the short story collection The Theory of Light and Matter, which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, t...

First Draft - Cathleen Schine

17 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Cathleen Schine is the author of the 12 novels including The Love Letter and Rameau’s Niece, The Three Weissmanns of Westport, and The Grammarians. ...

First Draft - Clint Smith

03 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Clint Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History...

First Draft - Robert Lopez

27 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Lopez is the author of three novels, Part of the World, Kamby Bolongo Mean River —named one of 25 important books of the decade by HTML Giant...

First Draft - Rebecca Makkai (Returns)

20 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Rebecca Makkai is the Chicago-based author of the novels The Great Believers, The Hundred-Year House, and The Borrower, as well as the short story col...

First Draft - Michelle Dowd

13 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Michelle Dowd is a journalism professor and contributor to The New York Times, The Los Angeles Book Review, The Alpinist, Catapult, and other national...

First Draft - Jai Chakrabarti

06 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jai Chakrabarti is the author of the novel A Play for the End of the World, which won the National Jewish Book Award for debut fiction, was the Associ...

First Draft - Susan Griffin

27 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Susan Griffin is an award-winning poet, writer, essayist and playwright who has written nineteen books, including A Chorus of Stones, a finalist for t...

First Draft - Matthew Salesses

20 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Salesses is the author of eight books, including The Sense of Wonder, the national bestseller Craft in the Real World, and the PEN/Faulkner Fi...

First Draft - Kathryn Ma

13 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kathryn Ma is the author of the widely praised novel The Year She Left Us, which was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice and an NPR “Great Read...

First Draft - Katherine Standefer

06 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Katherine Standefer is the author of Lightning Flowers, which was shortlisted for the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Prize from the Columbia Gradua...

First Draft - Peter Turchi

30 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Turchi is the author of seven books and the co-editor of three anthologies. His books include (Don't) Stop Me if You've Heard This Before; A Mus...

First Draft - Blair Braverman

23 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Blair Braverman is a writer, adventurer, and long-distance dogsledder who has completed some of the toughest sled dog races in the world. Her non-fict...

FIrst Draft - Stephanie Feldman

16 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Stephanie Feldman is the author of the novels Saturnalia and The Angel of Losses, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, winner of the...

First Draft - Jack Driscoll (Returns)

09 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jack Driscoll is a two-time NEA Creative Writing Fellowship recipient and the author of twelve books, including the story collections, Wanting Only to...

First Draft - Chris Belcher

02 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Chris Belcher is a writer, professor, and former sex worker. She completed a PhD in English at the University of Southern California, where she now te...

First Draft - Peter Orner (Returns)

26 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Chicago-born Peter Orner is the author of two novels: The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo and Love and Shame and Love, and three story collections Es...

First Draft - Namwali Serpell

19 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Namwali Serpell was born in Lusaka, Zambia, and lives in America. Her debut novel, The Old Drift, won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Arthur C. Cla...

First Draft - Elizabeth Strout (Returns)

12 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth Strout is the author of the New York Times bestseller Olive Kitteridge, for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize; the national bestselle...

First Draft - Morowa Yejidé

05 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Morowa Yejidé is a native of Washington, DC, is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Time of the Locust, which was a 2012 finalist for the PE...

First Draft - Elizabeth McCracken (Returns Again!)

28 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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

First Draft - Omer Friedlander

21 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Omer Friedlander was born in Jerusalem in 1994 and grew up in Tel Aviv. He earned a BA in English Literature from the University of Cambridge, England...

First Draft - Ross Gay

14 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein A...

First Draft - Tracy K. Smith

07 Nov 2022

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 - Stacey D'Erasmo

31 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Stacey D’Erasmo is the author of five novels and one book of nonfiction. She has been the recipient of a Stegner Fellowship in fiction, a Guggenhei...

First Draft - George Saunders (Returns Again)

24 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

George Saunders is the author of eleven books, including Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the 2017 Man Booker Prize for best work of fiction in Englis...

First Draft - Andrea Barrett

17 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Andrea Barrett is the author of nine previous works of fiction, including the National Book Award–winning Ship Fever and Pulitzer Prize finalist Ser...

First Draft - Kevin McIlvoy (In Memory)

10 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Kevin McIlvoy published six novels: One Kind Favor, A Waltz, Little Peg, Hyssop, At the Gate of All Wonder, and The Fifth Station, as well as two...

First Draft - Katie Runde

03 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Katie Runde is originally from the Jersey Shore, where her family ran boardwalk businesses. She has lived in Southern California, New York City, and P...

First Draft - Jonathan Escoffery

26 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jonathan Escoffery is the author of the linked story collection, If I Survive You, a New York Times Editor’s Choice, a National Book Award Nominee, ...

First Draft - Jill Bialosky

19 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jill Bialosky is a poet, editor, writer, and novelist. Her new poetry collection Asylum: A Personal, Historical, Natural Inquiry in 103 Lyric Section...

First Draft - Carlos Allende

12 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Carlos Allende is a media psychology scholar and a writer of fiction. He has written three novels: Cuadrillas y Contradanzas, a historical melodrama...

First Draft - Casey Parks

05 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Casey Parks is a reporter for The Washington Post who covers gender and family issues. She was previously a staff reporter at the Jackson Free Press a...

First Draft - Eric Nguyen

29 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Eric Nguyen earned an MFA in creative writing from McNeese State University in Louisiana. He has been awarded fellowships from Lambda Literary, Voices...

First Draft - Jamil Jan Kochai

22 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jamil Jan Kochai is the author of 99 Nights in Logar, a finalist for the Pen/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literat...

First Draft - Chinelo Okparanta

15 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Chinelo Okparanta was born and raised in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Her debut short story collection, Happiness, Like Water, was nominated for the Nigeri...

First Draft - James Longenbach (New Edit)

08 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Poet, critic, and professor James Longenbach wrote primarily on modernist and contemporary poetry. He is the author of the critical works Stone Cottag...

First Draft - Charles Baxter (Returns!)

01 Aug 2022

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 So...

First Draft - Lidia Yuknavitch (Returns)

25 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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

First Draft - Ben Winters

18 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ben H. Winters is the author of the novels The Quiet Boy, Golden State; the New York Times bestselling Underground Airlines; The Last Policeman and it...

First Draft - Zeina Hashem Beck

11 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet. Her third poetry collection is called O. Her second full-length collection, Louder than Hearts, won the 2016 Ma...

First Draft - Tsering Yangzom Lama

04 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Tsering Yangzom Lama is a Tibetan writer. She was born and raised in Nepal, and has since lived in Canada and the United States. Tsering earned her MF...

First Draft - Nathanial White

27 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Nathanial White grew up in Maine and has lived in Mexico, Brazil, and Ecuador. His speculative fiction explores the human psyche, physical disability,...

First Draft - Lawrence Jackson

20 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Lawrence Jackson is a biographer and critic whose work has appeared in Harper’s Magazine, n+1, and Best American Essays. He teaches English and hist...

First Draft - Soon Wiley

13 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Soon Wiley received his BA in English & Philosophy from Connecticut College. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Wichita State University. His wr...

First Draft - NoViolet Bulawayo

06 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

NoViolet Bulawayo is the author of the novels Glory and We Need New Names, which was recognized with the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the Pen/Hemingwa...

First Draft - Akwaeke Emezi

30 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Akwaeke Emezi is the author of the New York Times best seller The Death of Vivek Oji, which was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, Pet, a finalis...

First Draft - Jeffrey Yang

23 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jeffrey Yang is the author of four poetry collections including Hey, Marfa, winter of the Southwest Book Award, and and An Aquarium, winner of the ...

First Draft - Ada Limón (returns)

16 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ada Limón is the author of six books of poetry, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Limón is also t...

First Draft - Jacinda Townsend

09 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jacinda Townsend is the author of Saint Monkey which is set in 1950s Eastern Kentucky and won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and the James Fenimore ...