Michael discusses his work as a poetry teacher and writer and his joy in bringing students into closer relationship with poetry and their writing of new poems. He encourages us to see writers as readers and readers as writers, as we expand our understanding of what should be included in our process of poetry writing.

Janine discusses her work as an author of narrative long form non-fiction. As a writer of human rights abuses around the world, she speaks to us about several important techniques: being an empathic listener, carefully choosing characters and using their dialogue to tell the narrative of injustice, the importance of thorough research and interviewing, and the centrality of the verbal storytelling tradition.

Cate discusses her work as a fiction writer and the central importance an interesting character can have in driving the rest of the narrative. Cate prompts a debate about whether fiction writers should be free to write about characters with social identities different from their own, and various details we should consider when making this decision.

Cate discusses her work as a fiction writer and how to employ small details about our characters' inner emotional and intellectual lives to enrich a narrative. She discusses how to use point of view to direct the structure of a story and move the plot in an engaging way.

Tarfia discusses her work as a poet and how our personal identity informs the syntax in our writing. She explores the present moment in poetry writing and the power that comes from poetry that is both flexible and vulnerable.

Lina discusses her work as a non-fiction writer coming from Columbia and speaking both English and Spanish. She considers the balance of writing with translation and attempting to preserve meaning while keeping the character's natural voice. She discusses writing as a truth-telling process, as well as how to think about lying in non-fiction.

Boris discusses his work as a fiction writer and keeping the reader engaged. He speaks about the importance of plot in motivating the reader, strategically creating drama, and divulging information to the reader. Finally, he discusses how to prime our readers with detail about characters before writing important character and plot changes.

Angela discusses her work as a fiction writer and how to manage a large cast of characters and writing from multiple points of view. She considers issues of the social hierarchy and community that surrounds our characters, as well as how to decide how "deep" to go into a character's internal life. Finally, she teaches us how to differentiate our characters when working with a large cast.

Patricia discusses her work as a writer of memoir and the unique considerations we need when writing memoir. She encourages us to select the most important moments and details of a story, and how we can achieve richness in our story by exploring personal character details. Finally, she considers memoir as an act of discovery.

James discusses his work as a poet and the importance of framing poetry as pleasure and nourishment. He discusses the power of sound and musicality in poetry and the unique emotionality that can exist in well-written poetry.

Forrest discusses his work as a poet and the turn in poetry and its interplay with line breaks and syntax. He considers several types of turns including perceptual and conceptual turns and how they evoke new types of emotion and meaning.

Alisa discusses her work as a fiction writer and how to use a large "orchestra" of voices, including the voice of the community and setting. She also explores the challenge and importance of doing political writing in the modern era.

Peter discusses his work as a playwright and how we can use word choice to write about complex social topics. He challenges us to understand the micro-level details of our characters' lives before moving on to the "larger" story. Finally, he asks how should we write a character's voice that is honest and respectful when we know little about their culture and history as the author?

Megan discusses her work as a playwright and how to craft and structure a new play. She discusses using the self to structure and expand a play, and also how finding voice in playwriting is different than writing a book or other mediums.

Obari discusses his work as a fiction writer and illustrates the reciprocal relationship between character and story. He teaches how to use critical judgment in selection details for our stories, and finally, the global importance of character creation.

Elizabeth discusses her work as a fiction writer and her field research process as a way to immerse into a particular topic. She teaches us how to use field research to find inspiration to create stories and characters by interacting with different milieus, learning the particular jargon, and experiencing from an insider perspective.

Kate talks about her work as a poetry writer and keeping a document with written collection of random thoughts and ideas as a tool for building poems. She also gives us some examples of their own excerpts and how the juxtaposition of single elements results in new creative ideas.