Mentors, Muses and Monsters: Thirty Writers on the People Who Changed Their Lives

Writer and teacher Elizabeth Benedict talks about "Mentors, Muses and Monsters: Thirty Writers on the People Who Changed Their Lives." She edited the book, which features essays by Elizabeth Benedict * Robert Boyers * Jay Cantor * John Casey * Maud Casey * Christopher Castellani * Alexander Chee * Michael Cunningham * Jonathan Safran Foer * Julia Glass * Mary Gordon * Neil Gordon * Arnon Grunberg * Samantha Hunt * Denis Johnson * Margot Livesey * Dinaw Mengestu * Sigrid Nunez * Joyce Carol Oates * ZZ Packer * Caryl Phillips * Carolyn See * Jim Shepard * Anita Shreve * Jane Smiley * Martha Southgate * Cheryl Strayed * Evelyn Toynton * Lily Tuck * Edmund White

Elizabeth Benedict is the author of five novels, including the bestseller Almost and the National Book Award-shortlisted Slow Dancing, and The Joy of Writing Sex: A Guide for Fiction Writers. She has been a frequent guest on such national programs as NPR’s Fresh Air and All Things Considered, and her work has appeared in outlets including The New York Times, Boston Globe, AARP, Huffington Post, Allure, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, Tin House, and Salmagundi. Benedict is currently on the faculty of the Columbia University MFA program and has taught writing at Princeton, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and Swarthmore College. She lives in New York City and Boston.

Kathleen Stephenson hosts.