Rumaan Alam is the author of the New York Times instant bestseller Leave the World Behind,  ''a genuine thriller, a brilliant distillation of our anxious age, and a work of high literary merit'' (The Washington Post) that follows two families who meet at an isolated vacation during a possible cataclysm. The book was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award and named to nearly two dozen ''best of the year'' lists, and a film adaptation starring Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali is in production. Alam's other novels include Rich and Pretty and That Kind of Mother, and his other writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and The Wall Street Journal, among other periodicals. 

Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the memoir In the Dream House and the short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. She is the Abrams Artist in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania and a Guggenheim fellow. (recorded 12/2/2021)