Join us for a panel discussion featuring some of the best hired hands in the business. Four freelance writers will share stories and advice about writing for various publications including newspapers and magazines. They will discuss their inspirations, how to turn an idea into a story, and how to get hired.

Joshuah Bearman is a former editor and writer at the LA Weekly. He has written for Harpers, McSweeneys, Wired, Rolling Stone, and contributes to This American Life.

Claire Hoffman works as a freelance writer for a number of national magazines, including Rolling Stone, GQ, and the New Yorker. Claire is also an Assistant Professor of Journalism at the University of California, Riverside. Before going freelance, Claire worked for Condé Nast Portfolio and the Los Angeles Times, where she covered everything from Hollywood and polygamist Mormons to the adult entertainment industry. Claire has two masters degrees—one in religious studies from the University of Chicago Divinity School and another from the Columbia School of Journalism. Before coming to California, Claire worked as an intern and a freelance reporter for the New York Times.

Neal Pollack is the author of several acclaimed books of fiction and nonfiction, including the bestselling memoir Alternadad and the satirical cult classic The Neal Pollack Anthology Of American Literature, originally published by McSweeneys. His freelance writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, GQ, Men's Journal, Maxim, Details, Slate.com, Salon.com, and many other publications. His next book, STRETCH: The Unlikely Making Of A Yoga Dude, will be published in August by Harper Perennial. He lives about ten miles away from here, with his wife and son.

Joel Stein grew up in Edison, N.J., went to Stanford and then worked for Martha Stewart for a year. After a year of fact-checking at various important publications (okay, Readers Digest Books and TV Guide), he got hired as a sports editor at Time Out New York, where they paid him to write sentences. He felt like the luckiest boy in the world. Two years later he lucked into a job as a staff writer for Time magazine, where over seven and a half years he wrote a dozen cover stories on subjects such as Michael Jordan, Las Vegas, the Internet bubble and — it being Time and he being a warm body in the office — low-carb diets. After teaching a class in humor writing at Princeton, he moved to L.A. at the beginning of 2005 to write a column for the Los Angeles Times and work as a sitcom writer. In addition to working for the failed show Crumbs, he has already had two failed pilots at ABC and hopes to expand into failed pilots at other networks. He still contributes to Time and whatever magazines allow him to. He just sold a book proposal to Grand Central about learning how to be a man.

Moderated by Zach Frechette, Editor in Chief of GOOD.