An English professor meets his long-time writing idol, who turns out to be a surly and irritable man — nothing like the majestic intellectual the professor had envisioned.

An accomplished but ineffectual columnist searches for fulfillment, until a death in the family causes him to question the family he took for granted.

Essie, a biographer, finds out she has more in common with her subject Matthew Corley, a sleeper agent, when she recreates him as a simulated figure that can be accessed with the purchase of her book.

When a mysterious new member joins a group of struggling authors, the friends discover that they may have a supernatural creature in their midst, who can grant a single author success above all the others—but at a cost.

A Confederate officer begrudgingly fights in the American Civil War until his disastrous last battle helps seal the fate of the war for good. After the war, he constantly repents for his critical mistakes until, decades later, he comes to a shocking revelation about the fateful battle.

A young male writer is hired by the prince to write a story about the land the prince is governing. However, when the prince's life is in danger, the writer tries to protect his employer at all costs.

A Black, southern house servant with internalized racism, joins her mistress on a visit to another region, where she observes Black people acting with something she abhors: autonomy.

When a young aspiring writer takes residence with a Jewish couple, he is pressured into maintaining a façade about his potential for publishing.

Upon returning to Paris after a decade-long hiatus wandering the French countryside and writing an epic, a poet encounters an enigmatic young woman who believes he is a god and wants to be his disciple,

After the suicide of his elderly and famous brother, an auto parts salesman recounts his brother's life and details his willingness to hurt everyone who loved him in the name of art.