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Order Fourteen Days, a Collaborative Novel by Margaret Atwood, Doug Preston, John Grisham, Dave Eggers, Celeste Ng, Tommy Orange, and Many Others

Guild News

February 6, 2024

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New York, NY – The Authors Guild is thrilled to announce the release of Fourteen Days (HarperCollins), a collaborative novel co-written by 36 authors, set during the initial days of the COVID-19 lockdown in New York City. Conceived by Douglas Preston, bestselling thriller author and past president of the Authors Guild, and co-edited by Margaret Atwood, Fourteen Days chronicles the connection-in-isolation between quarantined storytellers sheltering in place to survive a surreal chapter of history together.

When the pandemic forces a motley mix of lower east side apartment dwellers to isolate on their building’s roof, suspense builds as eccentric tenants cautiously share stories about their lives to get through the tense days. At first tight-lipped strangers, colorful backstories and shocking secrets begin to unfold between the unlikely rooftop collective. Echoing classics of crisis storytelling such as The Decameron, Preston wrote the collaborative novel’s framing narrative linking the novel together.

Like the apartment residents, the group of writers who penned Fourteen Days is the most diverse ever to collaborate on a single work. Thirty-six American and Canadian writers, spanning all genres, ranging in age from their thirties to mid-eighties, and from a remarkable variety of cultural, political, social, and religious backgrounds, have come together for what Literary Hub calls “an interesting experiment in collective storytelling” and heralds as one of the most anticipated books of the year. Early praise for the book includes a starred review from BookList that said it’s “a bold new twist on the plague novel … bountiful, unpredictable, witty, an affecting tale-of-tales … of many voices and moods that dramatizes the transformation of isolation into community.”

Part of the enjoyment for readers will be guessing which author wrote which character’s story, making Fourteen Days a unique literary guessing game. The contributors are: Charlie Jane Anders, Margaret Atwood, Jennine Capó Crucet, Joseph Cassara, Angie Cruz, Pat Cummings, Sylvia Day, Emma Donoghue, Dave Eggers, Diana Gabaldon, Tess Gerritsen, John Grisham, Maria Hinojosa, Mira Jacob, Erica Jong, CJ Lyons, Celeste Ng, Tommy Orange, Mary Pope Osborne, Doug Preston, Alice Randall, Caroline Randall Williams, Ishmael Reed, Roxana Robinson, Nelly Rosario, James Shapiro, Hampton Sides, R. L. Stine, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Monique Truong, Scott Turow, Luis Alberto Urrea, Rachel Vail, Weike Wang, De’Shawn Charles Winslow, and Meg Wolitzer.

The novel’s unique format, omitting bylines until the end of the novel, emphasizes the collective over the individual, challenging the traditional concept of authorship.

“It’s a statement of inclusion,” says Preston. “Accepting all genres, all types of writers without plugging everyone into a hierarchy.”

Preston conceived of the project as a fundraising vehicle to support the Authors Guild Foundation’s advocacy and educational work. A survey of Authors Guild members showed that a staggering 71.4 percent of its writers experienced an income decline of as much as 49 percent during the pandemic due to delayed publishing dates, canceled book tours, readings and lectures, lost writing assignments, and other work. The Guild succeeded in pushing forth legislation that revised the COVID relief package to include freelance writers. Proceeds from sales of the book will continue to fund the Guild’s educational programming and advocacy work in Washington, D.C., and beyond.

Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild says, “Fourteen Days is not only an imaginative literary experiment but also an act of catharsis. It probes the abiding questions of our pandemic psyche in ways history and straight reportage may not fully capture, exploring what we lost and gained, how we coped, and how delving into the creation of stories, during a time of many unknowns, sustained us.”

HarperCollins invites readers to explore this extraordinary collaboration, a novel that not only revisits a pivotal moment in our recent history but also celebrates the enduring power of storytelling.

Order your copy here today.

Contact:

Raluca Albu
Communications Director, The Authors Guild
RAlbu@authorsguild.org

Maya Baran
Senior Director, Publicity, HarperCollins
212-207-7398
maya.baran@harpercollins.com