Julie Limbaugh and Rachel Riederer teach University Writing at Columbia University in New York, where they are MFA candidates in nonfiction writing. They are both from Missouri. They are also writing books about faraway places: Julie's is about places that don't exist and Rachel's is about Africa's Lake Victoria.
It starts with a guy in an elevator. I’m condensing things here, but it’s like the greatest elevator ever made: a really smooth ride, well lit, and huge. You can…