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Elaine Castillo, named one of "30 of the Planet's Most Exciting Young People" by the Financial Times, was born and raised in the Bay Area. Her debut novel, America Is Not the Heart, was a finalist for numerous prizes including the Elle Big Book Award, the Center for Fiction Prize, and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Her new essay collection is called How To Read Now and I barely know where to start. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CJ Hauser teaches creative writing at Colgate University. She is the author of two novels, Family of Origin and The From-Aways. In 2019 she published "The Crane Wife" in The Paris Review, which reached more than a million readers all over the world. The Crane Wife, the book version, is her first work of nonfiction. Recommended Reading: Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley The Summer Book by Tove Jansson Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen Kirby Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ada Limón is the author of The Hurting Kind, as well as five other collections of poems. These include, most recently, The Carrying, and Bright Dead Things. She’s a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and American Poetry Review, among others. She is the new host of American Public Media's weekday poetry podcast The Slowdown. Born and raised in California, she now lives in Lexington, Kentucky. Recommended Reading: Extracting the Stone of Madness by Alejandra Pizarnik All the Flowers Kneeling by Paul Tran The Renunciations by Donika Kelly Customs by Solmaz Sharif Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Isaac Fitzgerald appears frequently on The Today Show and is the author of the bestselling children's book How to Be a Pirate as well as the co-author of Pen & Ink and Knives & Ink (winner of an IACP Award). His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, the Best American Nonrequired Reading, and numerous other publications. He lives in Brooklyn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elisa Albert is the author of After Birth, The Book of Dahlia, the short story collection How This Night Is Different, and the editor of the anthology Freud's Blind Spot. She lives with her family in upstate New York. Her latest novel is called Human Blues Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TOMI OBARO is an editor at BuzzFeed News. She lives in Brooklyn. Her debut novel is called Dele Weds Destiny. Recommended Reading: Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga The Sex Lives of African Women by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marie Myung-Ok Lee is a Korean American writer and author of the young adult novel Finding my Voice, thought to be one of the first contemporary-set Asian American YA novels. She is one of a handful of American journalists who have been granted a visa to North Korea since the Korean War. She’s a founder of the Asian American Writers' Workshop and teaches creative writing at Columbia. She lives in New York City with her family. Her new novel is called Evening Hero. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sloane Crosley is the author of the novel The Clasp and the essay collections Look Alive Out There and the New York Times bestsellers I Was Told There'd Be Cake (a Thurber Prize finalist) and How Did You Get This Number. A frequent contributor to The New York Times, she lives in Manhattan. Her new novel is called Cult Classic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Melissa Chadburn's writing has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times Book Review, and many other publications. Her extensive reporting on the child welfare system appears in the Netflix docuseries The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Creative Writing at USC and lives in greater Los Angeles. Her debut novel is called A Tiny Upward Shove. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Chaon is the author of several previous books, including Ill Will, a national bestseller, named one of the ten best books of 2017 by Publishers Weekly. Other works include the short story collection Stay Awake (2012), a finalist for the Story Prize; the national bestseller Await Your Reply; and Among the Missing, a finalist for the National Book Award. His latest novel is called Sleepwalk. Recommended Reading: Habitats of the World by Phil Chaon Midnight Doorways by Usman Malik The Candy House by Jennifer Egan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kim Kelly is an independent journalist, author, and organizer. She has been a regular labor columnist for Teen Vogue since 2018, and her writing on labor, class, politics, and culture has appeared in The New Republic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Baffler, The Nation, the Columbia Journalism Review, and Esquire, among many others. A third-generation union member, she is a member of the Industrial Workers of the World's Freelance Journalists Union as well as a member and elected councilperson for the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE). Her new book is called Fight Like Hell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elif Batuman's first novel, The Idiot, was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, and was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction in the UK. She is also the author of The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, which was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism. She has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2010 and holds a PhD in comparative literature from Stanford University. Her second novel is called Either/Or. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Annie Hartnett is the author of Rabbit Cake, which was listed as one of Kirkus Reviews‘s Best Books of 2017 and a finalist for the New England Book Award. She has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the Associates of the Boston Public Library. She studied philosophy at Hamilton College, has an MA from Middlebury College, and an MFA from the University of Alabama. When she began writing Unlikely Animals, she was living in the groundskeeper’s house in a cemetery. She now lives in a small town in Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and darling border collie, Mr. Willie Nelson. Recommended Reading: Good Grief: On Loving Pets, Here and Hereafter by E. B. Bartels · How High We Go In the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu · Notes On an Execution by Danya Kukafka Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michelle Hart's fiction has appeared in Joyland and Electric Literature, and she has written nonfiction for Catapult, NYLON, The Rumpus, and The New Yorker online. Previously, she was the Assistant Books Editor at O, the Oprah Magazine and Oprah Daily. She received her MFA from Rutgers-Newark and lives in New Jersey. Her debut novel is called We Do What We Do In the Dark. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vauhini Vara has worked as a Wall Street Journal technology reporter and as the business editor for The New Yorker. Her fiction has been honored by the O. Henry Prize and the Rona Jaffe Foundation. From a Dalit background, she lives in Fort Collins, Colorado. Her debut novel is called The Immortal King Rao. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now celebrating its fifth season, Storybound is a radio theater program designed for the podcast age. Hosted by 2021 KCRW Radio Race winner Jude Brewer, Storybound presents the voices of today’s best writers reading accomplished works of fiction and non-fiction. You’ll also hear original music specially composed for the respective text. Needless to say, it’s an immersive storytelling experience. The episode we’re sharing today features Lauren Groff reading “Flower Hunters” from her collection Florida.  Lauren doesn’t need an introduction, but just in case: She’s the universally acclaimed and bestselling author of Matrix and Fates and Furies. Lauren is also, of course, a past guest of The Maris Review.  If you enjoy what you hear, make sure to follow Storybound (for free) wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chantal V. Johnson is a tenant lawyer and writer. A graduate of Stanford Law School and a 2018 Center for Fiction Emerging Writers Fellow, she lives in New York. Her debut novel is called Post-Traumatic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maeve Higgins is a contributing writer for The New York Times and a former comedian who performed all over the world. She starred in the multi-award winning movie Extra Ordinary and hosts a climate justice podcast with Mary Robinson entitled Mothers of Invention. Her latest essay collection is called Tell Everyone On This Train I Love Them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL’s five previous novels include The Glass Hotel and Station Eleven, which was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, has been translated into 35 languages, and is the basis for the HBO Max series by the same name. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chloé Cooper Jones is a philosophy professor and freelance journalist who was a finalist for a 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing. Her work has appeared in publications including GQ, The Verge, and The Believer, and has been selected for both The Best American Travel Writing and The Best American Sports Writing. She lives in Brooklyn. Her debut memoir is called Easy Beauty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices