David Gates and Jonathan Ames
David Gates has published two novels, Jernigan and Preston Falls and a short story collection, The Wonders of the Invisible World. Jernigan was finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and both Preston Falls and Wonders for the National Book Critics’ Circle Award. According to Amazon.com, "David Gates writes practically perfect American stories. Perfect, first of all, in their staid adherence to American short-story tradition… [In] The Wonders of the Invisible World, it's all Updikean adultery, Cheeveresque drinking, some drugs, a life-altering accident or two. But Gates's stories step beyond being perfect examples of their form to become something fresh, compassionate, and witty. He has an astonishing handle on the way people talk, not just to each other, but to themselves." He’s published short fiction in The New Yorker, Esquire, GQ, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, The Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Prize Stories. His journalism and criticism has appeared in such publications as The New York Times , The New Yorker, Esquire, GQ, Rolling Stone among others.
Jonathan Ames is the author of the novels I Pass Like Night, The Extra Man, and Wake Up, Sir!, and the essay collections What's Not to Love? and My Less Than Secret Life. He is the editor of Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs. A new book of essays, I Love You More Than You Know, will be published in January 2006. Booklist writes, "Ames writes edgy, punchy, sexy, funny, and extremely eloquent prose, and it is no wonder he has developed cult status." He is the winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a former columnist for New York Press. Wake Up, Sir! and The Extra Man are in development as films, with Mr. Ames writing the screenplays. Mr. Ames performs frequently as a storyteller and comedian and has been a recurring guest on the Late Show with David Letterman.