in conversation with JJ ELLIOTT

JJ ELLIOTT is a professional copywriter with a degree in English from UCLA. She lost her mother to suicide as a teenager, and spent over two years in her 20’s manning the suicide hotlines in LA. One of the reasons she wanted to write her debut novel, There Are No Rules for This, is because she finds herself increasingly frustrated by the way suicide is treated in print and on-screen, as a mystery to be solved instead of a multi-layered, complex condition that can rarely be boiled down to one specific “reason.”

There Are No Rules for This (She Writes Press, May 2023), which won two Zibby Awards, draws readers into a deeply affecting story of friendship, loss, guilt, healing, and forgiveness. Told from the perspective of one of her closest friends, the story starts with the suicide of Feeney, a wife and mother of two, and progresses through its aftershocks, while continually flashing back to memorable incidents over the course of the women’s friendship. Interweaving moments of hilarity with expressions of profound grief, the novel offers glimpses of what drove Feeney to take her own life through comments that her friends dismissed and passages in her diary, found after her death.

NINA SIMON

Nina Simon is the New York Times-bestselling debut author of Mother-Daughter Murder Night. Before writing fiction, Nina wore many professional hats: NASA engineer, slam poet, game designer, museum director, and nonprofit CEO. Her work on community participation in museums, libraries, parks, and theaters has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, NPR, and the TEDx stage.

Nina wrote Mother-Daughter Murder Night as a love letter to her mother, as a way to entertain, comfort, and connect with her during a major health crisis. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Nina now lives off-the-grid in the Santa Cruz Mountains with her family. More information can be found on her website, www.ninaksimon.com.

in conversation with JENNIFER CARSON

Jennifer Carson is a novelist, essayist, and book critic. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Barnes & Noble Review, Science, Six Hens Journal and Los Angeles Times. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from the Bennington Writing Seminars and was a writer-in-residence at the Wellstone Center in the Redwoods and at Hypatia-in-the-Woods. She is also the founder of the literary organization To the Lighthouse. Formerly an astrophysicist, she holds an SB in physics from MIT and a PhD in astrophysics from UCLA. She has just completed her first novel, The Savage Path, and is represented by Stephanie Cabot at Susanna Lea Associates.

AMBER CARON

Amber Caron is the author of the story collection Call Up the Waters (Milkweed Editions, 2023) and the recipient of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, Southwest Review’s McGinnis-Ritchie Award for fiction, and grants from the Elizabeth George Foundation and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. Her stories and essays have appeared in The Threepenny Review, PEN America Best Debut Short Stories, AGNI, Story, Bennington Review, Southwest Review, Longreads, Writer’s Chronicle, and elsewhere. She is an assistant professor of English at Utah State University and an assistant fiction editor at AGNI.

in conversation with JENNIFER CARSON

Jennifer Carson is a novelist, essayist, and book critic. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Barnes & Noble Review, Science, Six Hens Journal and Los Angeles Times. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from the Bennington Writing Seminars and was a writer-in-residence at the Wellstone Center in the Redwoods and at Hypatia-in-the-Woods. She is also the founder of the literary organization To the Lighthouse. Formerly an astrophysicist, she holds an SB in physics from MIT and a PhD in astrophysics from UCLA. She has just completed her first novel, The Savage Path, and is represented by Stephanie Cabot at Susanna Lea Associates.

KAREN JOY FOWLER

Karen Joy Fowler is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels and three short story collections. Her 2004 novel, The Jane Austen Book Club, spent thirteen weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list and was a New York Times Notable Book. Fowler’s previous novel, Sister Noon, was a finalist for the 2001 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. Her debut novel, Sarah Canary, won the Commonwealth medal for best first novel by a Californian, was listed for the Irish Times International Fiction Prize as well as the Bay Area Book Reviewers Prize, and was a New York Times Notable Book. Fowler’s short story collection Black Glass won the World Fantasy Award in 1999, and her collection What I Didn’t See won the World Fantasy Award in 2011. Her most recent novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, won the 2014 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction and was short-listed for the 2014 Man Booker Prize. Her new novel Booth published in March 2022 and was long-listed for the 2022 Booker Prize.

She is the co-founder of the Otherwise Award and the current president of the Clarion Foundation (also known as Clarion San Diego). Fowler and her husband, who have two grown children and seven grandchildren, live in Santa Cruz, California. Fowler also supports a chimp named Caesar who lives at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Sierra Leone.

in conversation with JENNIFER CARSON

Jennifer Carson is a novelist, essayist, and book critic. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Barnes & Noble Review, Science, Six Hens Journal and Los Angeles Times. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from the Bennington Writing Seminars and was a writer-in-residence at the Wellstone Center in the Redwoods and at Hypatia-in-the-Woods. She is also the founder of the literary organization To the Lighthouse. Formerly an astrophysicist, she holds an SB in physics from MIT and a PhD in astrophysics from UCLA. She has just completed her first novel, The Savage Path, and is represented by Stephanie Cabot at Susanna Lea Associates.

DOUGLAS ABRAMS

Doug Abrams is an author, editor, literary agent, and truth hunter who is committed to helping catalyze the next evolutionary stage of our global culture.

In addition to co-writing The Book of Joy with the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, he also worked with Stephen Hawking on his last book, the global bestseller Brief Answers to the Big Questions. He has had the privilege of working with other Nobel Laureates including Nelson Mandela, Jody Williams, and Elizabeth Blackburn. He has worked with many visionary scientists. He is also devoted to spreading the importance of conservation and fighting climate change. He is currently working with Christiana Figueres, the former UN Secretary on Climate, who led the Paris Climate Agreement, on The Future We Choose: Ending the Climate Crisis, and with plant ecologist Suzanne Simard on Finding the Mother Tree, about her work discovering the communication and network intelligence of trees and forests, and how cooperation is as important to survival as competition. Doug has also worked with Desmond Tutu as his coauthor, editor, and literary agent for almost two decades.

Doug is the Founder and President of Idea Architects, a creative book and media company helping visionaries to create a wiser, healthier, and more just world.

Dialogue is key to Doug’s work, and he believes that genius is a collaborative process. His goal is to bring people together in a cultural conversation through books and media that transform lives and ultimately the world.

in coversation with JENNIFER CARSON

Jennifer Carson is an author, literary critic, book group facilitator, physicist, and the founder of To the Lighthouse. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Science, Six Hens Journal, Barnes & Noble Review, and the Los Angeles Times op-ed pages. She has practiced Buddhist meditation in the Therevada tradition for over 20 years. She holds a BS in physics from MIT, a PhD in astrophysics from UCLA, and an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from the Bennington College Writing Seminars. She has just completed her first novel, The Savage Path, and is represented by Stephanie Cabot at Susanna Lea Associates.

MEG HOWREY

Meg Howrey is the author of the novels The Wanderers, The Cranes Dance, Blind Sight, and most recently, They’re Going to Love You, which received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, and Booklist, and was a New York Times Best Book of November and Editor’s Choice Pick, as well as an Indie Next List selection. Her fiction has appeared in Granta and her non-fiction in Vogue and the Los Angeles Review of Books.

She is a former professional ballet dancer and actress, and currently lives in Los Angeles.

In conversation with JENNIFER CARSON

Jennifer Carson is an author, literary critic, book group facilitator, physicist, and the founder of To the Lighthouse. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Science, Six Hens Journal and Barnes & Noble Review. She has just completed her first novel, The Savage Path, and is represented by Stephanie Cabot at Susanna Lea Associates.

MAUD NEWTON

Maud Newton is a writer and critic. Her first book, Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation (Random House, March 2022), has been called “a literary feat” by the New York Times Book Review and a “brilliant mix of personal memoir and cultural observation” by the Boston Globe. She has written for The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, the Guardian, Esquire, Time, the Wall Street Journal, Oxford American, Harper's Bazaar, and many other publications and anthologies, including Best American Travel Writing 2015 and the New York Times bestseller What My Mother Gave Me. She received the 2008 Narrative Prize, for fiction, and the Short Fiction Prize from the City College of New York. Maud grew up in Miami, lives in New York City, and has degrees in English and law.

LAILA LALAMI

Laila Lalami was born in Rabat and educated in Morocco, Great Britain, and the United States. She is the author of five books, including The Moor’s Account, which won the American Book Award, the Arab-American Book Award, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. It was on the longlist for the Booker Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Her most recent novel, The Other Americans, was a national bestseller and a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and the National Book Award in Fiction. Her essays and criticism have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, The Nation, Harper’s, the Guardian, and the New York Times. She has been awarded fellowships from the British Council, the Fulbright Program, and the Guggenheim Foundation and is currently a distinguished professor of creative writing at the University of California at Riverside. She lives in Los Angeles.

MATT BELL

Matt Bell is the author of the novels Scrapper and In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods, as well as the short story collection A Tree or a Person or a Wall, a non-fiction book about the classic video game Baldur's Gate II, and several other titles. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Tin House, Conjunctions, Fairy Tale Review, American Short Fiction, and many other publications. A native of Michigan, he teaches creative writing at Arizona State University.

PITCHAYA SUDBANTHAD

Pitchaya Sudbanthad is the author of the novel Bangkok Wakes to Rain, first published by Riverhead Books (US) and Sceptre (UK), and selected as a notable book of the year by The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as Finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize.

He has received fellowships in fiction writing from the New York Foundation for the Arts and MacDowell, and currently splits time between Bangkok and Brooklyn.

REBECCA DONNER

Rebecca Donner is the author of the instant New York Times bestseller All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days, published by Little, Brown in the US and Canongate in the UK. A Hebrew translation is forthcoming from Matar Publishing in Israel.

Born in Canada, Rebecca Donner was educated at the University of California at Berkeley and Columbia University. She is the author of Sunset Terrace, a critically acclaimed novel, and Burnout, a graphic novel about ecoterrorism. Her essays, reportage, and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times and Bookforum.

Rebecca Donner was recently shortlisted for a Fulbright Award. She was a 2018-19 fellow at the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the City University of New York, is a two-time Yaddo fellow, and has twice been awarded fellowships by Ucross Foundation. She has also held residencies at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Vermont Studio Center. Donner is a member of the National Book Critics Circle, and has taught writing at Wesleyan University, Columbia University, and Barnard College.

SARAH STEIN

Sarah Abrevaya Stein is a historian, writer and educator whose work has reshaped our understanding of Jewish history. Her commitment to research is matched by her love of teaching. At UCLA, she is Professor of History, the Director of the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, as well as the Viterbi Family Chair in Mediterranean Jewish Studies. She is the author or editor of ten books, including Family Papers: a Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century and Plumes: Ostrich Feathers, Jews, and a Lost World of Global Commerce.

Sarah has received many awards including the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Jewish Book Awards and the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award.

She lives with her family in Santa Monica, CA.

MIRANDA COWLEY HELLER

Miranda Cowley Heller was raised in New York in a family of artists, writers and editors. Her grandfather was the literary critic Malcolm Cowley. After graduating from Harvard, she was the associate fiction and books editor at Cosmopolitan Magazine, before working for almost a decade as Senior Vice President and Head of Drama Series at HBO, developing and overseeing such shows as The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Deadwood, and Big Love, among others. She currently serves on the Board of the Fine Arts Work Center (FAWC) in Provincetown, MA, and, until its merger with PEN America last year, was Treasurer and on the Board of PEN CENTER-USA. She divides her time between Los Angeles, London and Cape Cod. The Paper Palace is her first novel.

MARK SARVAS

Mark Sarvas is the American Book Award-winning author of the novels Memento Park and Harry, Revised. He was a finalist for the prestigious Sami Rohr Prize, and won the 2019 Association of Jewish Libraries Fiction Award. His debut novel, Harry, Revised, was published in more than a dozen countries around the world. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle whose criticism has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Bookforum, and numerous other outlets. He teaches advanced novel writing in the UCLA Extension Writers Program and holds an MFA in Creative Writing & Literature from Bennington College.