Open Form Creators & Guests

Mychal Denzel Smith is a writer, television commentator, and author of the book Stakes Is High.

Jordan Kisner is a writer. She also teaches creative writing at Columbia University. She is the creator of and host of LitHub's "Thresholds" podcast.Kisner contributes to The Atlantic and the New York Times Magazine, and writes a column for The Paris Review. She also writes essays, features, and reviews for n+1, The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, The Guardian, The Believer, and others. Her first book, "Thin Places: Essays from In Between," was published in 2020.

R. Okyong Kwon is an author, best known for her first novel, "The Incendiaries," which was published in 2018.Kwon’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, The Paris Review, Bookforum, and NPR.