Maggie Nelson is the author of several acclaimed books, many of which have become cult classics defying categorization. Her titles include Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth (2025); Like Love: Essays and Conversations (2024); the national bestseller On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint (2021); the National Book Critics Circle Award winner and international bestseller The Argonauts (2015); The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning (2011; named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year); Bluets (2009; named by Bookforum as one of the best 10 books of the last 20 years; adapted for the stage in 2024 by Katie Mitchell at the Royal Court Theatre of London). A recipient of a MacArthur “genius” fellowship and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Nelson is currently a Distinguished Professor of English at USC.

Darcey Steinke is the author of the forthcoming book This is the Door: The Body, Pain and Faith. She has published both novels and memoirs and she often writes about art. Her books have been translated into ten languages, and her writing has appeared among other places in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Vogue, Spin Magazine and The Guardian. Her web story “Blindspot” was a part of the 2000 Whitney Biennial and she was short-listed last year for the French Arles Author Prize. Darcey has taught at The New School, Columbia, Princeton, and the American University of Paris