First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing

First Draft - J. Courtney Sullivan

18 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

J. Courtney Sullivan is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Commencement, Maine, The Engagements, and Saints For All Occasions. Learn ...

First Draft - David Grann

11 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

David Grann is a NY Times bestselling author.  His books include The Lost City of Z, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, and Killers of the Flower Moon. L...

First Draft - Tom Rachman

04 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Rachman is the author of four works of fiction: his bestselling debut, The Imperfectionists , which was translated into 25 languages; the critical...

First Draft - Donna Masini

28 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Donna Masini's latest collection of poems, 4:30 Movie, an elegy for her sister, explores personal loss, global violence, the ways in which movies shap...

First Draft - Chris Offutt

21 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Chris Offutt is the author of two short story collections, three memoirs, and two novels including his most recent, Country Dark. Learn more about you...

First Draft - Tim Kreider

14 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Tim Kreider is an essayist and cartoonist.  His latest book is called I Wrote This Because I Love You. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaph...

First Draft - Kevin Powers

07 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Kevin Powers is the author of A Shout in the Ruins, The Yellow Birds and the poetry collection, Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting.  He wa...

First Draft - Curtis Sittenfeld

30 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

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

First Draft - Sarah Henstra

23 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Henstra is the author of The Red Word and Mad Miss Mimic. She is is a professor of English literature at Ryerson University in Toronto. Learn mo...

First Draft - Robert Kurson

16 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Kurson is an American author, best known for his 2004 bestselling book, Shadow Divers, the true story of two Americans who discovered a World W...

First Draft - Anna Quindlen

09 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Anna Quindlen is a novelist and journalist whose work has appeared on fiction, nonfiction, and self-help bestseller lists. She is the author of nine n...

First Draft - Yang Huang

02 Apr 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Yang Huang grew up in Jiangsu, China and came to the U.S. to study computer science. While working as an engineer, she studied literature and pursued ...

First Draft - Hermione Hoby

26 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Hermione grew up in south London and graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2007 with a double first in English Literature. After working on th...

First Draft - Zachary Lazar

19 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Zachary Lazar is the author of five books, including Sway, Evening’s Empire: The Story of My Father’s Murder,  I Pity the Poor Immigrant, and Ven...

First Draft - Tara Westover

12 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Tara Westover is an American author living in the UK. Born in Idaho to a father opposed to public education, she never attended school. She spent her ...

First Draft - Jenny Offill

05 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jenny Offill is the author of Dept. of Speculation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First Draft - Steven Schwartz

26 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Steven Schwartz is the author of Little Raw Souls, Therapy, and Madagascar: New and Selected Stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphon...

First Draft - Karen Thompson Walker

19 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Karen Thompson Walker was born and raised in San Diego, California, where The Age of Miracles is set. She studied English and creative writing at UCLA...

First Draft - Jamie Quatro

12 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jamie Quatro’s debut collection, I Want To Show You More, was a New York Times Notable Book, NPR Best Book of 2013, Indie Next pick, The Oprah Magaz...

First Draft - Elizabeth Strout

05 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth Strout was born in Portland, Maine, and grew up in small towns in Maine and New Hampshire. Her novels include Amy and Isabelle, Olive Kitter...

First Draft - Boris Fishman

29 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Boris Fishman was born in Minsk, Belarus, and immigrated to the United States in 1988 at nine. His journalism, essays, and criticism have appeared in ...

First Draft - Elliot Ackerman

22 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Elliot Ackerman served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and is the recipient of the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple ...

First Draft - Kate Manne

15 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Kate Manne is an assistant professor of the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University. She was a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows...

First Draft - Joan Silber

08 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Joan Silber's first book, the novel Household Words won the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her other works of fiction are In the City, In My Other Life, Lu...

Firsr Draft - Alice McDermott 2

01 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Alice McDermott is the author of eight novels, including National Book Award winner Charming Billy and The Ninth Hour. Learn more about your ad choice...

First Draft - George Saunders

25 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

George Saunders is the author of four short story collections, including Tenth of December and the novel Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the 2017 Man ...

First Draft - James Han Mattson

18 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

James Han Mattson is the author of The Lost Prayers of Ricky Graves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First Draft - Jennifer Egan

11 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Jennifer Egan is the author of several novels and a short story collection. Her book, A Visit From the Goon Squad, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, the Na...

First Draft - James Longenbach

04 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

James Longenbach is a poet and critic whose most recent collection of poems, Earthling is a meditation on the ways in which human beings inhabit their...

First Draft - Matthew Weiner

27 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Weiner was the writer, creator, executive producer, and director of Mad Men. He also worked as a writer and executive producer on The Sopranos...

First Draft - Carmen Maria Machado

20 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Carmen Maria Machado's debut short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, was a finalist for the National Book Award and the winner of the Bard...

First Draft - Bruce Machart

13 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Bruce Machart's works include the novel The Wake of Forgiveness and the short story collection Men in the Making. His novel was named a Barnes and Nob...

First Draft - David Litt

06 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

David Litt is an American political speechwriter and author of the memoir Thanks, Obama: My Hopey Changey White House Years. He is currently the head ...

First Draft - Lu Spinney

30 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Lu Spinney was born in Cape Town and spent her childhood on a farm in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, later moving with her family to the Indian Ocean ...

First Draft - Eleanor Henderson

23 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Eleanor Henderson was born in Greece, grew up in Florida, and attended Middlebury College and the University of Virginia, where she earned her MFA. He...

First Draft - Jon McGregor

16 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Jon McGregoris a British novelist and short story writer. In 2002, his first novel was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize as its youngest contender. ...

First Draft - Kevin McIlvoy

09 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kevin McIlvoy has taught creative writing for over twenty-five years. He  was Editor in Chief of the national literary magazine, Puerto del Sol at Ne...

First Draft - Brendan Mathews

02 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Brendan Mathews is the author of The World of Tomorrow. He was a Fulbright Scholar to Ireland, where he taught in the graduate creative writing progra...

First Draft - Josh Weil

25 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Josh Weil is the author of the novel The Great Glass Sea and the novella collection The New Valley, both New York Times Editor’s Choices. A Fulbrigh...

First Draft - Laura van den Berg

18 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Laura van den Berg was raised in Florida and earned her M.F.A. at Emerson College. Her books include Find Me, The Isle of Youth, and What the World W...

First Draft - Nathan Englander

11 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Nathan Englander is the author of the novels Dinner at the Center of the Earth and The Ministry of Special Cases, and the story collections For the Re...

First Draft - Lily Tuck

04 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Lily Tuck is the author of seven novels: Interviewing Matisse, or the Woman Who Died Standing Up; The Woman Who Walked on Water; The Double Life of ...

First Draft - Paolo Giordano

28 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Paolo Giordano is an Italian novelist.  His books include The Solitude of Prime Numbers, Like Family, and The Human Body. Learn more about your ad ch...

First Draft - Claire Messud

21 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Claire Messud is the author of six novels and one book of novellas including The Woman Upstairs, When the World Was Steady, THe Last Life, and The Emp...

First Draft - Paul Yoon

14 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Paul Yoon was born in New York City. His first book, Once the Shore, was selected as a New York Times Notable Book and a Best Debut of the Year by Nat...

First Draft - Andrew Sean Greer

07 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Andrew Sean Greer is the author of six works of fiction, including the bestseller The Confessions of Max Tivoli, The Story of a Marriage and his late...

First Draft - Dorit Rabinyan

31 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Dorit Rabinyan was born in Israel to an Iranian-Jewish family. Her first two novels Persian Brides and Strand of A Thousand Pearls were both internati...

First Draft - Claire Dederer

24 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Claire Dederer is the author of Love and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First Draft - Maile Meloy

17 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Maile Meloy is the author of the novels Liars and Saints and A Family Daughter and the story collections Half in Love and Both Ways Is the Only Way I ...

First Draft - Leila Aboulela

10 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Leila Aboulela is a Sudanese-born writer whose work, written in English, has received critical acclaim and a high profile for its distinctive explorat...

First Draft - Nina McConigley

03 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Nina McConigley is the author of Cowboys and East Indians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First Draft - Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

26 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich is the author of THE FACT OF A BODY: A Murder and a Memoir, named an Indie Next Pick; one of the most anticipated books o...

First Draft - Dani Shapiro

19 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Dani Shapiro is the bestselling author of the memoirs Still Writing, Devotion, and Slow Motion, and five novels including Black & White and Fam...

First Draft - Megan Abbott

12 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Megan Abbott is the Edgar-winning author of the novels Die a Little, Bury Me Deep, The End of Everything, Dare Me and The Fever. Her most recent book ...

First Draft - Chavisa Woods

05 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Chavisa Woods is the author of Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country and Other Stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/ad...

First Draft - Jesse Goolsby

29 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Jesse Goolsby is the author of the novel I’d Walk with My Friends If I Could Find Them, winner of the Florida Book Award for Fiction and long-listed...

First Draft - Max Winter

22 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Max Winter is a graduate of UC Irvine’s MFA program, and a recipient of two Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Fellowships in Fiction. He has b...

First Draft - Peter Heller

15 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Heller is the author of the novels The Dog Stars, The Painter, and Celine.  He is a longtime contributor to NPR, and a contributing editor at ...

First Draft - Viet Thanh Nguyen

08 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel The Sympathizer is a New York Times best seller and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His other books are Nothing Ever D...

First Draft - Sarah Gerard

01 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Gerard is the author of the essay collection Sunshine State, the novel Binary Star, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times first fiction prize, an...

First Draft - Shulem Deen

24 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Shulem Deen is the author of the  award-winning memoir All Who Go Do Not Return, an account of growing up in and then leaving the Skverers, one of...

First Draft - Karen Joy Fowler

17 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Karen Joy Fowler is the author of six novels and three short story collections. The Jane Austen Book Club spent thirteen weeks on the New York Time...

First Draft - Jim Shepard

10 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Jim Shepard is an American novelist and short story writer, who teaches creative writing and film at Williams College.  His latest novel is The Book ...

First Draft - Douglas Preston

03 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Douglas Preston is a novelist, journalist, and essayist.  Preston's most recent nonfiction book, The Lost City of the Monkey God, published in Janua...

First Draft - Melissa Febos

27 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Melissa Febos is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, Whip Smart and the essay collection, Abandon Me. Her work has been widely anthologized...

First Draft - Dan Chaon

20 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Dan Chaon’s most recent book is Ill Will,  a novel.   Other works include the short story collection Stay Awake (2012), a finalist for the Story P...

First Draft - Deborah Willis

13 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Deborah Willis was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. Her first book, Vanishing and Other Stories, was named one of the the Globe and Mail's Best B...

First Draft - Katie Kitamura

06 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Katie Kitamura is a critic and novelist living in New York City. She is the author of Gone to the Forest and The Longshot, both of which were fina...

First Draft - Lily King

27 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Lily King is the author of Euphoria. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First Draft - Sarah Manguso

20 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Manguso is the author of seven books including 300 Arguments, a genre-defying work of nonfiction; Ongoingness, a meditation on motherhood and ...

First Draft - Anuk Arudpragasam

13 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Anuk Arudpragasam is from Colombo, Sri Lanka, and graduated with a BA from Stanford University in 2010. His first novel is called The Story of a Bri...

First Draft - Marcy Dermansky

30 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Marcy Dermansky is the author of the novels The Red Car, Bad Marie and Twins.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First Draft - Melanie Finn

25 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Melanie Finn was born in Kenya in 1964.  She spent her childhood largely unsupervised, roaming suburban Nairobi’s remnant woodlands and back roads...

First Draft - Joshua Mohr

16 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Joshua Mohr is the author of the memoir "Sirens", as well as five novels including "Damascus", which The New York Times called "Beat-poet cool." He’...

First Draft - Peter Orner

10 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Orner is the author of Am I Alone Here? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First Draft - Gerrard Conley

02 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

First Draft interview with Gerrard Conley, author of the memoir Boy Erased. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First Draft - Akhil Sharma

26 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Akhil Sharma is an Indian-American author and professor of creative writing. His first published novel An Obedient Father won the 2001 Hemingway Found...

First Draft - Benjamin Percy

19 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Benjamin Percy is the author of three novels, the most recent among them The Dead Lands, a post apocalyptic reimagining of the Lewis and Clark saga. H...

First Draft - Anuradha Roy

12 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Anuradha Roy's latest book, Sleeping on Jupiter,  won the DSC Prize for Fiction 2016 and was nominated for the Man Booker prize 2015. She won the Eco...

First Draft - Randa Jarrar

05 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Randa Jarrar’s work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Utne Reader, Salon.com, Guernica, The Rumpus, The Oxford American, Ploughshares...

First Draft - Emily Witt

28 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Emily Witt is a writer in New York City. She has written for n+1, The New Yorker, The New York Times, GQ, the London Review of Books, and many other p...

First Draft - Teddy Wayne

21 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Teddy Wayne is the author of the novels Loner, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine (Simon & Schuster), and Kapitoil (Harper Perennial). He is the winner ...

First Draft - Robert Bausch

14 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Bausch was born in Georgia, at the end of World War II, and was raised in the Washington, D.C., area. He has worked as a salesman--of automobil...

First Draft - Patrick Ryan

11 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Patrick Ryan is the author of the short story collection The Dream Life of Astronauts and the novels Send Me and Saint Augustine among others. Learn m...

First Draft - Jane Smiley

31 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Smiley is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Thousand Acres.  She has written more than twenty books including Private Life, Moo, and Thirte...

First Draft - Nicole Dennis-Benn

24 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Nicole Dennis-Benn is the author of the highly acclaimed debut novel, Here Comes the Sun, a New York Times Editors' Choice, which has received a starr...

First Draft - Kevin Barry

17 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Kevin Barry was born in Limerick in 1969 and now lives in Dublin. He writes sketches and columns for the Sunday Herald in Glasgow and the Irish Exa...

First Draft - Leigh Stein

10 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Leigh Stein is the author of the novel The Fallback Plan, a collection of poetry called Dispatch from the Future, and a memoir, Land of Enchantment. S...

First Draft - John Freeman

05 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

John Freeman is an American writer and a literary critic.  He is the author of How to Read a Novelist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaph...

First Draft - Lev Grossman

03 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Lev Grossman's first novel, Warp, came out in 1997. His second, Codex, was published in 2004 and became an international bestseller. The Magician...

First Draft - Ramona Ausubel

26 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Ramona Ausubel grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is the author of a new novel, Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty as well as the novel No One is...

First Draft - Debra Spark

19 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Debra Spark is the author of five books of fiction, including Unknown Caller, The Pretty Girl, and Good for the Jews. Other books include Curious Attr...

First Draft - Jennifer duBois

16 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Jennifer duBois is the recipient of a 2013 Whiting Writer’s Award and a 2012 National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 award. Her debut novel, A Partial H...

First Draft - Jennifer Haigh

12 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Jennifer Haigh's new novel is called Heat and Light. She is the author of four previous novels: Faith, The Condition, Baker Towers and Mrs. Kimble, ...

First Draft - Helen Schulman

15 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Helen Schulman is author of This Beautiful Life, four other novels and one short story collection. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.f...

First Draft - Kim Addonizio

08 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Kim Addonizio is the author of six poetry collections, two novels, two story collections, and two books on writing poetry, The Poet’s Companion (w...

First Draft - Anna Noyes

01 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Anna Noyes is the author of the debut story collection, Goodnight, Beautiful Women, which was named a New York Times Editors' Choice. She has an MFA f...

First Draft - Anna Solomon

25 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Anna Solomon is the author of The Little Bride, Leaving Lucy Pear and a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize. Her short fiction, essays, and reviews ...

First Draft - Charles Bock

18 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Charles Bock is the author of the novels Alice & Oliver and Beautiful Children, which was a New York Times bestseller and Notable Book, and which w...

First Draft - Ethan Canin

04 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Highly regarded as both a novelist and a short story writer, Ethan Canin has ranged in his career from the "breathtaking" short stories of Emperor ...