Tessa Fontaine and Annie Hartnett return to talk about accountability (and their new writing retreat).

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Tessa Fontaine is the author of THE ELECTRIC WOMAN: A MEMOIR IN DEATH-DEFYING ACTS, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick, and best book of 2018 by Southern Living, Refinery29, Amazon Editors’, and The New York Post. THE RED GROVE, her first novel, was a best book of May from Amazon and People Magazine, and long listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Raised outside San Francisco, Tessa is part of the MFA faculty of the Warren Wilson program. She lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with her daughter, goofy dog and sassy cat.

Annie Hartnett is the award-winning author of three novels: Rabbit Cake, Unlikely Animals, and the national bestseller The Road to Tender Hearts, which won the 2025 New England Book Award for fiction. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband Drew, daughter Leora, and a border collie named Willie Nelson.

Photo by Tanya Barrow on Unsplash

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