In Other People’s Trades, Primo Levi describes his “vagabond and dilettantish curiosity” about jobs other than his own. This panel features writers who have thought deeply about what their characters do for work—at times fulfilling, at times dangerous, occasionally invented, and usually calling for arcane knowledge, skills, and habits of mind. From sponge diver to film professor, physicist to umbrologist, our characters’ professions afford us uncanny access into their inner and outer worlds. With Tim Horvath, Sequoia Nagamatsu, and Joy Baglio.

Room 2505AB, Kansas City Convention Center, Level 2