Rachel Kushner is the author of the internationally acclaimed novels The Mars Room, The Flamethrowers, and Telex From Cuba, as well as a book of short stories, The Strange Case of Rachel K. The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020 was published in April 2021. She has won the Prix Médicis and been a finalist for the Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Folio Prize, the James Tait Black Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and was twice a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction. She is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and the recipient of the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her books have been translated into twenty-six languages.
Claire Messud is the author of six works of fiction. A recipient of a Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her family. Released May 14, 2024, Messud’s This Strange, Eventful History is on the following 2024 novel to be on the lookout for lists: One of Oprah Daily’s Most Anticipated Books of 2024 • One of New York magazine’s “23 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2024” • One of The Guardian‘s “Books to Look Out for in 2024” • One of The Globe & Mail‘s Most Anticipated Books of 2024 • One of BookPage‘s Most Anticipated fiction of 2024 • One of Literary Hub‘s “Most Anticipated Books of 2024” • One of Book Riot‘s “Most Anticipated Books of 2024.”
Paul Yoon is the author of five works of fiction: Once the Shore, which was a New York Times Notable Book; Snow Hunters, which won the Young Lions Fiction Award; The Mountain, which was an NPR Best Book of the Year; Run Me to Earth, which was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction; and most recently, The Hive and the Honey, which won The Story Prize.
A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, his stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, and The Best American Short Stories. He lives in the Hudson Valley, New York, with his wife and dog.,
About This Year’s Moderator:
Akhil Sharma, Duke English, Adele Schiff Professor of the Practice, is the author of An Obedient Father, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Best American Short Stories, and O. Henry Award Stories. He was named in the Atlantic’s 2024 list of great American novels
