AYAD AKHTAR is a novelist and playwright, author of McNeal, Disgraced, Junk, Homeland Elegies, among other works. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Edith Wharton Citation of Merit for Fiction, and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, his work has been published and performed in more than two dozen languages. He serves on the boards of the American Academy in Rome, PEN America, Yaddo, and most recently, the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference.

Photo credit: Vincent Tullo