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Hey everyone. Welcome back to the screenwriting life. I'm Meg Lofov.

And I'm Lorian McKenna, and today we are absolutely thrilled to welcome George Saunders on the show.

George is a writer of novels, short stories, and nonfiction, whose work has amassed a collection of awards, including the Booker Prize for his debut novel, Lincoln and the Bardo.

Just like us, George is a story junkie, his essay collection, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain,

which focuses on the storytelling prowess of four Russian masters, was not only a bestseller,

but invited passionate responses from his readers.

So George started a wildly popular substack story club.

Check it out.

If you haven't checked it out, it's amazing.

And it features his insights into the mechanics, mystery, and magic of great storytelling.

So George, welcome to the show.

It's so nice to be here.

Thanks for having me.

I mentioned before we went on air that I'm a little starstruck. So just to our listeners, if I'm

fumbling, bumbling around, it's because George Saunders is here. Okay. Okay. So before we dive in

with him, we're going to do our weeks or what we like to call Adventures in Screenwriting.

We'll let Lorian start. Lorient, how was your week? My week was fairly good.

...