First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing

First Draft - Keith O'Brien

02 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Keith O'Brien is the author of three books: Outside Shot, Fly Girls, and Paradise Falls. He has been a finalist for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary S...

First Draft - Aimee Bender

25 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Aimee Bender is the author of six books: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, which was a NY Times Notable Book, An Invisible Sign of My Own, which was an...

First Draft - Rebecca Kauffman

18 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Rebecca Kauffman is the author of four novels including The Gunners, which received the Premio Tribuk dei Librai award in Italy, and Chorus. Learn mor...

First Draft - Sarah Manguso (Returns!)

11 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Manguso is a fiction writer, essayist, and poet, and the author, most recently, of the novel Very Cold People. Her nonfiction books are 300 Argu...

First Draft - Douglas Stuart

04 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Douglas Stuart is a Scottish - American author. His debut novel, Shuggie Bain, won the Booker Prize. His new novel is Young Mungo. His short stories, ...

First Draft - Jacqueline Mitchard

28 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jacquelyn Mitchard is the New York Times bestselling author of 22 novels for adults and teenagers, and the recipient of Great Britain’s Talkabout pr...

First Draft - Evie Wyld

21 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Evie Wyld's debut novel, After the Fire, a Still Small Voice, was short-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and awarded the John ...

First Draft - Lan Samantha Chang

14 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

 Lan Samantha Chang is the author of three novels, The Family Chao, All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost and Inheritance, and a story collection, Hunger...

First Draft - Thrity Umrigar

07 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Thrity Umrigar is the best-selling author of the novels Bombay Time, The Space Between Us, If Today Be Sweet, The Weight of Heaven, The World We Found...

First Draft - Susan Orlean (Returns)

28 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Susan Orlean has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992. She is the New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including On Animals, ...

First Draft - Charlotte Wood

21 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Charlotte Wood is the author of six novels and three books of non-fiction. Her latest book is The Luminous Solution, an exploration of creativity and ...

First Draft - Anahid Nersessian

14 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anahid Nersessian is an associate professor of English at University of California at Los Angeles. She is the author of The Calamity Form: On Poetry ...

First Draft - Steven Schwartz (Returns)

07 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Steven Schwartz is the author of four short story collections, Little Raw Souls, To Leningrad in Winter, Lives of the Fathers, Madagascar: New and Sel...

First Draft - Peter Ho Davies (Returns)

31 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Ho Davies is the author of three novels including A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself, The Fortunes, and The Welsh Girl. He has also published...

First Draft - Tom Bissell

24 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Bissell was born in Escanaba, Michigan, in 1974. His short fiction has won two Pushcart Prizes and has been published in multiple editions of The ...

First Draft - Michael Bazzett

17 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Bazzett is a poet and teacher. His work has appeared in The Sun, Ploughshares, Linebreak, West Branch, The Collagist, Sixth Finch and 32 Poems...

First Draft - Jean Hanff Korelitz

10 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jean Hanff Korelitz was born and raised in New York City and educated at Dartmouth College and Clare College, Cambridge. She is the author of the nove...

First Draft - Alice McDermott (Returns Again!)

03 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Alice McDermott is the author of several novels, including The Ninth Hour; Someone; After This; Child of My Heart; Charming Billy, winner of the...

First Draft - Best of 2021 Ben Okri

27 Dec 2021

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 - Best of 2021 George Saunders

20 Dec 2021

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 English...

First Draft - Best of 2021 Michael Kleber-Diggs

13 Dec 2021

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 - Best of 2021 Diane Seuss

06 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Diane Seuss was born in Michigan City, Indiana, in 1956 and raised in Edwardsburg and Niles, Michigan. She studied at Kalamazoo College and Western Mi...

First Draft - EJ Levy

29 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

EJ Levy’s work has been featured in The Best American Essays, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation and The Paris Review, and has rece...

First Draft - Nawaaz Ahmed

22 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Nawaaz Ahmed is a transplant from Tamil Nadu, India. Before turning to writing, he was a computer scientist, researching search algorithms for Yahoo. ...

First Draft - Kalani Pickhart

15 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Kalani Pickhart is the recipient of research fellowships from the Virginia G. Piper Center and the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Intelligence for...

First Draft - Rebecca Solnit

08 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Rebecca Solnit is a writer, historian, and activist. She is the author of more than twenty books on feminism, western and indigenous history, popular...

First Draft - Keisha N. Blain

01 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Keisha N. Blain is a 2022 New America National Fellow and an award-winning historian. She is the author of Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist W...

First Draft - Lauren Groff (Returns)

25 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Lauren Groff is the author of six books of fiction, the most recent the novel Matrix. Her work has won The Story Prize, the ABA Indies’ Choice Award...

First Draft - Richard Powers

18 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Powers has published thirteen novels. His most recent is Bewilderment. He is a MacArthur Fellow and received the National Book Award. His nov...

First Draft - Annie Murphy Paul

11 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Annie Murphy Paul is an acclaimed science writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Scientific American, Slate, Time mag...

First Draft - Peter Orner (Returns!)

04 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Orner's fiction and non-fiction has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly, Granta, The Paris Review, The New Yorker, McSweeney’...

First Draft - Grant Faulkner

27 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Grant Faulkner is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the co-founder of 100 Word Story. He has published two books ...

First Draft - Kevin McIlvoy (Returns Yet Again!)

20 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Kevin McIlvoy has published six novels, A Waltz, The Fifth Station, Little Peg, Hyssop, At the Gate of All Wonder, and One Kind Favor; and a short st...

First Draft - Robert Olen Butler

13 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Olen Butler has published seventeen novels: Late City, The Alleys of Eden, Sun Dogs, Countrymen of Bones, On Distant Ground, Wabash, The Deuce,...

First Draft - Jennifer Sperry Steinorth

06 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jennifer Sperry Steinorth’s books include Her Read, a graphic poem and A Wake with Nine Shades, a finalist for Foreword Reviews Best of the Indie Pr...

First Draft - Christine Mangan

30 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Christine Mangan is the author of the novels Tangerine, which was a New York Times Best Seller and Palace of the Drowned. She has her PhD in English f...

First Draft - Joshua Henkin

16 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Joshua Henkin is the author of the novels Morningside Heights, Swimming Across the Hudson, a Los Angeles Times Notable Book, Matrimony, a New York Tim...

First Draft - Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi

09 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Azareen Van Der Vliet Oloomi is the author of three novels. Her second novel Call Me Zebra won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the John Gardner Aw...

First Draft - S. Kirk Walsh

02 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

S. Kirk Walsh is a novelist, editor, and teacher based in Austin, Texas. Her debut novel is The Elephant of Belfast, inspired by true events that took...

First Draft - Tobey Pearl

26 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Tobey Pearl earned degrees in law and international relations from Boston University and studied international law at the University of Hong Kong. Te...

First Draft - Michael Kleber-Diggs

19 Jul 2021

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 - Steven Pressfield

12 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Steven Pressfield is the author of The Man-at-Arms, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Gates of Fire, Tides of War, Last of the Amazons, Virtues of War, The ...

First Draft - Marisa Silver

05 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Marisa Silver is the author of The Mysteries, Little Nothing, a New York Times Editor's Choice, and winner of the 2017 Ohioana Book Award for Fiction,...

First Draft - Justin Jannise

28 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Justin Jannise grew up in rural southeast Texas was the first in his family to attend college. He graduated from Yale University and attended the Iow...

First Draft - Diane Seuss

21 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Diane Seuss was born in Michigan City, Indiana, in 1956 and raised in Edwardsburg and Niles, Michigan. She studied at Kalamazoo College and Western Mi...

First Draft - Gabriela Garcia

14 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gabriela Garcia is the author of the novel Of Women and Salt. Her fiction and poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Tin House, Zyzzyva, Iowa Re...

First Draft - Ethan Rutherford (Returns)

07 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ethan Rutherford’s fiction has appeared in BOMB, Tin House, Ploughshares, One Story, American Short Fiction, Post Road, Esopus, Conjunctions, and Th...

First Draft - Imbolo Mbue

31 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Imbole Mbue is the author of the New York Times bestseller Behold the Dreamers, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and was an Oprah’s Book...

First Draft - Anna North

24 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Anna North is a journalist and a novelist. Her journalistic work currently focuses on reproductive health and the politics thereof. North is the autho...

First Draft - Layla AlAmmar

17 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Layla AlAmmar is a writer and academic from Kuwait. She has an MSc in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh. She was the 2018 British Coun...

First Draft - Elizabeth McCracken (Returns!)

10 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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

Viet Thanh Nguyen (Returns!)

03 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel The Sympathizer is a New York Times best seller and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The sequel to this novel is The C...

First Draft - Nalini Singh

26 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Nalini Singh is the author of more than 60 novels and novellas. She has five different series of books, primarily in the Paranormal Romance Genre. H...

First Draft - Chang-rae Lee

19 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Chang-rae Lee is the author of My Year Abroad, Native Speaker, winner of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for first fiction, as well as On Such a Fu...

First Draft - Lidia Yuknavitch

12 Apr 2021

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 A...

First Draft - Carol Edgarian

05 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Carol Edgarian is an award-winning novelist, essayist, teacher, and editor. Her novels includeVera, the New York Times bestseller Three Stages of Ama...

First Draft - Dantiel Moniz

29 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dantiel Moniz is the author of the short story collection Milk Blood Heat, which was an Indie Next Pick, an Amazon “Best Book of the Month” select...

First Draft - Priyanka Champaneri

22 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Priyanaka Champaneri is the author of the novel The City of Good Death, which won the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Fiction Writing in 2018. ...

First Draft - Alan Lightman (Returns)

15 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Alan Lightman is the author of six novels, including the international best seller Einstein’s Dreams and The Diagnosis, a finalist for the National ...

First Draft - George Saunders (Returns)

08 Mar 2021

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 English...

First Draft - Natalie West

01 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Natalie West is a Los Angeles based writer and educator. She worked as a professional Dominatrix while obtaining her PhD in Gender Studies. Her person...

First Draft - Eley Williams

22 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Eley Williams is the author of the novel The Liar's Dictionary, the short story collection Attrib. and Other Stories, and the poetry collection Frit. ...

First Draft - Te-Ping Chen

15 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Te-Ping Chen is a fiction writer and journalist whose debut collection of short stories is called Land of Big Numbers. Her fiction has been published ...

First Draft - Ben Okri

08 Feb 2021

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 - Mateo Askaripour

01 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Mateo Askaripour is the author of the novel Black Buck. He aims to empower people of color to seize the opportunities for advancement, not matter the...

First Draft - Peter Ho Davies

25 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Ho Davies’s latest book is A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself. His previous novel, The Fortunes, a New York Times Notable Book, won the Ani...

First Draft - Mark Wunderlich

18 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Wunderlich was born in Winona, Minnesota and grew up in rural Fountain City, Wisconsin. He attended Concordia College’s Institut für Deutsche ...

First Draft - Jamie Harrison

11 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jamie Harrison, who has lived in Montana with her family for more than thirty years, has worked as a caterer, a gardener, and an editor, and is the au...

First Draft - Emma Glass

04 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Emma Glass was born in Wales and now lives in London. She is a writer and works as a children’s nurse. Her debut novel Peach has been translated...

First Draft - Kwame Alexander

28 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, and the New York Times Bestselling author of 32 books, including The Undefeated, illustrated by Kadir Nelson, H...

First Draft - Danielle Evans

21 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Danielle Evans is the author of the story collections The Office of Historical Corrections and Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self. Her work has w...

First Draft - Cynan Jones

14 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Cynan Jones was born in 1975 near Aberaeron, Wales where he now lives and works. He is the author of five short novels, The Long Dry, Everything I...

First Draft - Jonathan Lethem

07 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jonathan Lethem is the bestselling author of twelve novels, including The Feral Detective, The Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn, winner of...

First Draft - Charles Baxter (Returns!)

30 Nov 2020

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 - Yishai Sarid

23 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Yishai Sarid was born and raised in Tel Aviv Israel. He studied law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and has a Public Administration Master’s ...

First Draft - Susan Minot

16 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Susan Minot is an award-winning novelist, short-story writer, poet, and screenwriter. Her first novel, Monkeys, was published in a dozen countries an...

First Draft - Bryan Washington

09 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Bryan Washington is the author of the short story collection Lot and the novel Memorial. He is a National Book Award 5 Under 35 honoree.  He has...

First Draft - Ken Bonert

02 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ken Bonert was born in South Africa and is the grandson of Lithuanian immigrants. His debut novel The Lion Seeker won both the 2013 National Jewish B...

First Draft - Bill Clegg (Returns!)

26 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Bill Clegg is a literary agent in New York and the author of the bestselling memoirs Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man and Ninety Days. His fi...

First Draft - Claire Messud

19 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Claire Messud is the author of six works of fiction, including the New York Times bestsellers The Emperor’s Children and The Burning Girl, and...

First Draft - Debra Spark

12 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Debra Spark is the author of five books of fiction, two collections of short stories, one anthology, and two works of nonfiction. Her most recent bo...

First Draft - Rebecca Watson

05 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Rebecca Watson is the author of the novel little scratch. She writes for publications including the Financial Times, The Times Literary Supplement, ...

First Draft - David Szalay

28 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

David Szalay is the author of five works of fiction: Spring, The Innocent, London and the South-East, for which he was awarded the Betty Trask and Geo...

First Draft - Peter Geye

21 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Geye is the author of the award winning novels, Safe from the Sea, The Lighthouse Road, and Wintering, winner of the Minnesota Book Award. He cu...

First Draft - Cherie Dimaline

14 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Cherie Dimaline is a member of the Georgian Bay Metis Community in Ontario who has published 5 books. Her 2017 book, The Marrow Thieves, won the Gover...

First Draft - Margot Livesey

07 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Margot Livesey is a writer and teacher. Her first book, published in 1986, was a collection of stories called Learning By Heart. Since then Margot ha...

First Draft - R.L. Maizes

31 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

R.L. Maizes is the author of the short story collection We Love Anderson Cooper and the novel Other People's Pets. Her essays have been published in ...

First Draft - Benjamin Nugent

24 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Benjamin Nugent is the author of the short story collection Fraternity. He is the winner of The Paris Review’s 2019 Terry Southern Prize. His stori...

First Draft - Ursula Heigi

17 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ursula Hegi is the author of The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls, The Worst Thing I've Done, Sacred Time, Hotel of the Saints, The Vision of Emma Blau,...

First Draft - Souvankham Thammavongsa

10 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Souvankham Thammavongsa is the author of How to Pronounce Knife. Her stories have won an O. Henry Award and appeared in Harper's Magazine, The Paris R...

First Draft - Michelle Bowdler

03 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Michelle Bowdler is the author of Is Rape a Crime? Michelle is a recipient of a 2017 Barbara Deming Memorial Award for non-fiction and has been a Fell...

First Draft - Sejal Shah

27 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Sejal Shah is the author of the debut essay collection, This Is One Way To Dance. Her stories and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Brevity, ...

First Draft - Anne Enright

20 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Anne Enright was born in Dublin, where she now lives and works. She has written two collections of stories, published together as Yesterday’s Weathe...

First Draft - TaraShea Nesbit

13 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

TaraShea Nesbit is a writer and teacher. Her second novel, Beheld, is a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and an Indies Next Pick for Apri...

First Draft - Marie Mutsuki Mockett

06 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Marie Mutsuki Mockett was born and raised in California to a Japanese mother and American father, and graduated from Columbia University with a degree...

First Draft - Mary South

29 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Mary South is a graduate of Northwestern University and the MFA program in fiction at Columbia University. For many years, she has worked with Diane ...

First Draft - Lori Gottlieb

22 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Lori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist and author of the New York Times bestseller Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, which is being adapted as a televis...

First Draft - Vanessa Hua

15 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Vanessa Hua is an award-winning, best-selling author and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Her novel, A River of Stars, was named to the ...

First Draft - Jane Hirshfield

08 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Hirshfield is an award-winning poet, essayist, and translator. She is the author of nine collections of poetry, including Ledger; The Beauty, l...

First Draft - Sue Monk Kidd

01 Jun 2020

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 ...