ROUND TABLE: Magic, Myth and Forces Beyond Reason

Lev Grossman has written for several publications, including Entertainment Weekly, Time Out New York, Salon, and the New York Times, and joined Time magazine in 2002 where he works as a book reviewer and lead technology writer. He is the author of the novels Warp, Codex and the New York Times bestseller The Magicians. Grossman presents his new book, The Magician King – a riveting sequel to The Magicians – in which he takes readers back to Fillory, where the Brakebills graduates have fled the sorrows of the mundane world, only to face terrifying new challenges.

Lesley Livingston is the award-winning author of the Wondrous Strange trilogy ((Wondrous Strange, Darklight and Tempestuous) and Once Every Never. Her most recent project, Starling, is the first book in a new YA urban fantasy series. The second book in her Never series, Every Never After, will be out next year. Lesley is currently working on the first book of a middle-grade series The Wiggins Weird, co-written with Jonathan Llyr.

Erin Morgenstern is a writer and a multimedia artist who describes all of her work as “fairy tales in one way or another.” She lives in Massachusetts. Morgenstern presents her debut novel, The Night Circus, in which a competition between two magicians becomes a star-crossed love story.

Simon Toyne has worked in British television for 20 years. As a writer, director and producer he has worked on several award-winning shows, one of which won a BAFTA Award. In December 2007 Toyne quit his job and moved to France for six months, hoping to fulfill a long-held desire to write a thriller. While travelling, it was the eerie sight of a Rouen Cathedral that struck his imagination and inspired the fictional Citadel in his debut Sanctus, a modern-day tale about life shattered by an ancient conspiracy nurtured by blood and lies.