Fiction & Poetry
Christine Adams
Christine Adams is the author of two collections of poetry, Setting the Table in the Age of Reason and Breaking Bread, the latter of which is scheduled for a June, 2026 release. Her work has appeared in Litchfield Magazine, The Red Wheelbarrow, The Connecticut Poetry Review, Rural Intelligence, Connecticut Magazine and Connecticut History. The Executive Director of the Kent Historical Society in Kent, Connecticut, Chris is also a certified grant writer and all around do-gooder. Although you’d never guess it from this bio, she spent 20 happy years as a Montclair resident.
Laurie Lico Albanese
Laurie Lico Albanese is the acclaimed author of Hester, a historical novel that gives a voice to Hester Prynne, heroine of The Scarlet Letter. Albanese’s works include the novels Stolen Beauty, Lynelle by the Sea, The Miracles of Prato (co-author), and Blue Suburbia, a memoir in verse. Her books have been Audible and Goodreads Best Books of the year selections, American Bookseller’s Association and librarian's notable books, and a Book of the Month club selection. The recipient of numerous awards and grants, Albanese is also a journalist and poet who has taught creative writing at Wagner College, Montclair State University, and elsewhere. A longtime supporter of the Montclair Literary Festival, she lives in New Jersey, teaches writing, and is at work on a new novel.
Ilona Bannister
Ilona Bannister, born and raised in New York, lives in the UK with her husband and sons. Her first book, When I Ran Away, was longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize.
Amy Jo Burns
Amy Jo Burns is the author of the memoir Cinderland and the novel Shiner, which was a Barnes & Noble Discover pick and an NPR Best Book of the Year. Her latest novel, Mercury, was a Barnes & Noble Book Club pick, a Book of the Month selection, a People Magazine Book of the Week, and an Editors’ Choice at The New York Times. A western Pennsylvania native, she lives in New Jersey with her family. Photo © Howard Chen/Dreamlite Photography
Anne Burt
Anne Burt's debut novel, The Dig, was an American Booksellers Association Indie Next Pick, the Strand Book Store's subscription pick for spring 2023, and Indie Next's lead "Thrills & Chills" reading group title for summer 2024. She is the co-author, with Christina Baker Kline, of two psychological thrillers: Please Don't Lie, published in 2025, and Watch Her Lie, forthcoming 2027. A Montclair resident for 20 years, Anne now splits her time between New York City and Connecticut.
Tracy Clark
A journalist of more than 30 years, Tracy Clark is the two-time Sue Grafton Memorial Award-winning author of the Cass Raines Chicago Mystery series among other acclaimed mysteries. Her debut novel Broken Places was shortlisted for the American Library Association's RUSA Reading List and named a CrimeReads best New PI Book of 2018, a Midwest Connections Pick, and a Library Journal Best Book of the Year. In 2023 she kicked off a new mystery series following hard-boiled Chicago detective Harriet Foster (one of the few Black female PIs in the genre) with Hide, which won the Lefty Award and was nominated for the Edgar, ITW, Macavity, and Anthony Awards. The series just concluded with Book Four, Edge. She is a proud member of Crime Writers of Color, Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime, and she sits on the boards of Bouchercon national and the Midwest Mystery Conference.
Alice Elliott Dark
Alice Elliott Dark is the author of the novels Fellowship Point and Think of England, and two collections of short stories, In The Gloaming and Naked to the Waist. "In the Gloaming," a story, was chosen by John Updike for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories of The Century and was made into films by HBO and Trinity Playhouse. She is the recipient of a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a 2026 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She is a Professor in the English department and the Director of the MFA in Creative Writing program at Rutgers-Newark. A standalone edition of In the Gloaming with a new Afterword will be published in September by Scribner, and a novel, Wherever You Are, is forthcoming from Scribner in 2027. Photo © Beowulf Sheehan
Marcy Dermansky
Marcy Dermansky is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Hurricane Girl, Very Nice, The Red Car, Bad Marie and Twins. Her most recent novel Hot Air was released in 2025 and is now available in paperback. Marcy's short fiction has been widely published and anthologized, appearing in McSweeney's, Guernica, The Indiana Review, Lenny Letter and elsewhere. Her essay "Maybe I Loved You" appeared in the best-selling anthology Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York. Marcy has received fellowships from MacDowell and The Edward Albee Foundation. She is the winner of the Smallmouth Press Andre Dubus Novella Award and Story Magazine Carson McCullers short story prize. Marcy lives in New Jersey with her daughter and two cats. Photo © Michael Lionstar
Jaquira Díaz
Jaquira Díaz is the author of Ordinary Girls: A Memoir, winner of a Whiting Award, a Florida Book Awards Gold Medal, a Lambda Literary Awards finalist, an American Booksellers Association Indies Introduce Selection, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, an Indie Next Pick, a Library Reads pick, and finalist for the B&N Discover Prize. Her debut novel, This Is the Only Kingdom, was longlisted for the Center for Fiction 2025 First Novel Prize. She lives in New York and teaches at Columbia University.
Josh English
Josh English is a poet, critic, and educator. His work has appeared in Poetry Magazine, Lana Turner Review, Bennington Review, Omniverse, West Branch, Annulet, Third Coast and elsewhere. He received his PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston and currently lives in Montclair, NJ with his wife and twin children.
Bonnie Friedman
Bonnie Friedman is the author of the bestselling Writing Past Dark, named one of the Essential Books for Writers by the Center for Fiction and Poets & Writers. She is also the author of The Thief of Happiness and Surrendering Oz, a finalist for the PEN Award in the Art of the Essay. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Ploughshares and numerous other literary journals, and she has been named a notable essayist four times in The Best American Essays. She has taught writing at the University of Iowa, Dartmouth, NYU, and the University of North Texas. Don’t Stop is her first novel. Photo © Paul Meltzer
David Galef
David Galef has published twenty books, including the novel How to Cope with Suburban Stress (Kirkus Best 30 Books of the Year), the short story collection My Date with Neanderthal Woman (Dzanc Books’ Short Story Collection Award), the children’s book Tracks (William Morrow and Scholastic), and Brevity: A Flash Fiction Handbook (Columbia University Press). His fourth novel, Where I Went Wrong, recently came out from Regal House Publishing. He’s a professor of English and the creative writing program director at Montclair State University. He’s also the editor of Vestal Review, the longest-running flash fiction magazine on the planet.
Xochitl Gonzalez
Xochitl Gonzalez is the New York Times bestselling author of the award-winning novel Olga Dies Dreaming, the Reese’s Book Club Pick Anita de Monte Laughs Last, and Last Night in Brooklyn. She is a contributor to The Atlantic, where she was recognized as a 2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist in Commentary. Photo © Allan Zepeda
Natalie Guerrero
Natalie Guerrero is a Dominican and Puerto Rican writer from New York. Her writing has been featured in publications such as Vogue, Elle Magazine, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, and Goop. My Train Leaves at Three is her first novel. When she is not writing, she can be found walking in the hills of Los Feliz with her dog, Tupac.
Garth Risk Hallberg
Garth Risk Hallberg’s first novel, City on Fire, was a New York Times and international best seller and was selected as one of the best books of 2015 by The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, The Guardian, and Vogue, among others. It was adapted into the Apple TV+ series of the same name. He is also the author of the novella A Field Guide to the North American Family. In 2017, Granta named him one of the Best of Young American Novelists. His work has been translated into seventeen languages. Photo © Michael Lionstar
Janis Hubschman
Janis Hubschman has published dozens of stories in literary magazines that include Cimarron Review, Colorado Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Saturday Evening Post, Southern Humanities Review, Electric Literature, and West Branch. Her stories have won Bellingham Review’s Tobias Wolff Award and a first-place award from Glimmer Train. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, Glimmer Train Bulletin, and New York Runner. She was the recipient of a Bread Loaf-Rona Jaffe Fiction Scholarship and a fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She lives with her husband in New Jersey and currently teaches fiction writing at Montclair State University. Take Me With You Next Time is her first book. Find her online at Janishubschman.com; facebook.com/JanisHubschman; Instagram @Janis_hub; & @Janishubschman.bsky.social
Morgan Jerkins
Morgan Jerkins is the author of Zeal, Caul Baby, Wandering in Strange Lands, and the New York Times bestseller This Will Be My Undoing. Jerkins has taught at Columbia and Princeton Universities, and has written for The New Yorker, the New York Times, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and the Guardian, among many others. She lives in New York. Photo © Sire Leo Lamar-Becker
Christina Baker Kline
Christina Baker Kline is the author of 10 novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Orphan Train, The Exiles, and A Piece of the World. Her novels have received the New England Society Book Award for Fiction, the Maine Literary Award, and several bookseller awards, among other prizes. Born in England, she was raised in the American South and Maine. She lives in New York City and in Southwest Harbor, Maine. Photo © Beowulf Sheehan
Judith Lindbergh
Judith Lindbergh is the author of Akmaral and The Thrall’s Tale, which was an IndieBound Pick and praised by Pulitzer Prize winners Geraldine Brooks and Robert Olen Butler. She has spoken at and published with the Smithsonian Institution and provided expert commentary for The History Channel’s documentaries. Judith received a 2024 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She is the Founder/Director of The Writers Circle, a creative writing center based in New Jersey.
Cleyvis Natera
Cleyvis Natera is an award-winning author, essayist, and critic. Her debut novel, Neruda on the Park, was a New York Times Editor's Choice and was awarded a Silver Medal by the International Latino Book Awards for Best First Book of Fiction. Her sophomore novel, The Grand Paloma Resort, was named a best book of the year by ELLE, Electric Literature, and CrimeReads. She was the recipient of the prestigious Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference 2024 Toni Morrison Fiction Fellowship. She is currently a Fulbright Specialist. She joined Montclair State University in the fall of 2024 as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing where she currently leads the development of a M.F.A. in Bilingual Creative Writing. Natera is also part of the creative writing faculty at Barnard College of Columbia University and The New School M.F.A. program. Photo © Beowulf Sheehan
Eva Lesko Natiello
Eva Lesko Natiello is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist. Her self-published titles have sold hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide in multiple languages and formats. As a marketing and self-publishing expert, she’s coached hundreds of writers—from beginners to seasoned career authors—to successfully publish and market their books. Her workshops are known to leave writers feeling empowered, motivated, savvy and inspired. Eva’s a member of The Authors Guild and International Thriller Writers. Eva’s new release, The Dog Sitter, a feel-good whirlwind that follows one woman’s midlife meltdown when she’s forced to take a 30-day dog-sitting job in NYC despite not being a dog person, and her unexpected turns of self-discovery—launches May 2026.
Emily Nemens
Emily Nemens’ debut novel, The Cactus League, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and named one of NPR’s and LitHub’s favorite books of 2020. Her stories have appeared in Bomb, The Gettysburg Review, n+1, and elsewhere; her illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker and in collaboration with Harvey Pekar. Emily spent over a decade editing literary quarterlies, including leading The Paris Review and serving as coeditor and prose editor of The Southern Review. She held the 2022–23 Picador Professorship at the University of Leipzig and teaches in the MFA program at Bennington College. She lives in central New Jersey with her husband and dog. Photo © James Emmerman
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates, one of the most acclaimed authors of the past century, has received numerous awards including the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction, and has six times been named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She has been a member of American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978 and holds the position of Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University. Her more than 100 novels and story collections include Blonde, which inspired the Academy Award-nominated 2022 film, as well as such acclaimed work as We Were the Mulvaneys, them, and Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Photo © Dustin Cohen
Barbara O'Dair
Barbara O’Dair received an MFA in poetry from The MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Her work was selected by the late Thomas Lux as winner of Mudfish 9’s annual poetry contest and nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2022. O’Dair’s poetry has appeared in Alaska Quarterly, Lips, MER, Nerve, Presence, Sycamore Review, West Branch, and Wisconsin Review, among others. Her essays and criticism have been published in Rolling Stone, Semiotexte, The New York Times, Village Voice, and elsewhere. Photo © Laura McPhee
Mark Peres
Mark Peres is author of The Accord, a novel about the future of human-AI relations, and the memoir, The Man Who Lived a Hundred Lives. He is a professor of ethics at Johnson & Wales University. He is the founder of The Charlotte Center for the Humanities & Civic Imagination, the Charlotte Ideas Festival, the On Life and Meaning podcast, and Charlotte Viewpoint magazine. He is a graduate of The Florida State University College of Law and Rollins College.
Tom Perrotta
Tom Perrotta is the author of eleven works of fiction, including Election and Little Children, both of which were made into Oscar-nominated films, and The Leftovers and Mrs. Fletcher, which were adapted into acclaimed HBO series. His new novel is Ghost Town. Photo © Beowulf Sheehan
Francine Prose
Francine Prose is the author of twenty-two works of fiction including the highly acclaimed The Vixen; Mister Monkey; the New York Times bestseller Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932; A Changed Man, which won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize; and Blue Angel, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her works of nonfiction include the highly praised 1974: A Person History, Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, and the New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer, which has become a classic. The recipient of numerous grants and honors, including a Guggenheim and a Fulbright, a Director’s Fellow at the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, Prose is a former president of PEN American Center, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College. Photo © Frances F. Denny
Susanna Rich
Poet and songwriter, Susanna Rich is an Emmy Award nominee and Fulbright Fellow in Creative Writing. Through her company, Wild Nights Productions, LLC, Susanna tours ashes, ashes: A Poet Responds to the Holocaust; A Romp with Emily Dickinson; and her musical, Shakespeare’s *itches: The Women v. Will. With over a thousand publication and performance credits, she is author of five poetry collections, most recently Beware the House and SHOUT! Poetry for Suffrage. Visit her at www.wildnightsproductions.com and becauseicanteach.blogspot.com.
Jill Rosenberg
Jill Rosenberg is a graduate of Vassar College and the MFA Program at the University of Montana. Her fiction has been published by the Kenyon Review, Swamp Pink, Black Warrior Review, and other journals. She currently writes and teaches in Montclair, New Jersey, where she also works with rescued cats and practices Buddhism.
Lisa Williamson Rosenberg
Lisa Williamson Rosenberg is the author of two novels, Embers on the Wind (Little A, 8/2022) and Mirror Me (Little A, 12/1/2024) She is also a psychotherapist and former ballet dancer. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Lisa’s short fiction and essays have appeared in numerous publications including Literary Hub, Longreads, and Narratively, where her essay Black Girl Blue Leotard was awarded the 2024 Memoir Grand Prize. Lisa was a Story Studio Chicago 2025 Story Board Conference Fellow in Nonfiction. Photo © Deborah Copaken
Frank Rubino
Frank Rubino is the author of Frank’s Lunch Service. Having apprenticed as a poet at St. Marks Poetry Project, Rubino co-hosts a poetry workshop and organizes readings at The Red Wheelbarrow Poets in Rutherford, New Jersey. Rubino’s poems have been published in the Red Wheelbarrow’s yearly journals 14-18, and in The World, The Platform Review, Thimble, Chaleur, The Aesthetic Apostle, DMQ Review and others. He grew up in Nutley, New Jersey, working summers in his father’s luncheonette in Newark. Rubino graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where he focused on installation art; later he went back to SVA for a master’s degree in computer art. He lives in NJ with his wife, poet Barbara O’Dair, child and cats. His three other children are out in the world.
Anastasia Rubis
Anastasia Rubis has published journalism in The New York Times and is former advertising executive and adjunct professor of English. She is a 2026 grant winner from New Jersey State Council of the Arts. Oriana is her debut novel.
Alison Ruth
Alison Ruth has an MFA in Creative & Professional Writing from William Paterson University. She is currently an Adjunct Instructor in Writing at Montclair State University, and has been an Adjunct Instructor in Communication and Writing at William Paterson University. She is a four-time Pushcart Prize nominee and author of two published novels, Starlight Black and the Misfortune Society and Near-Mint Cinderella. Her short stories and poems have been widely published in critically recognized literary journals, including Mystery Tribune, CutBank, Confrontation, Harpur Palate, and J Journal. One of her short stories has been optioned for a Hollywood film.
Jonathan Santlofer
Jonathan Santlofer is the author of seven novels, among them the USA Today bestsellers The Lost Van Gogh and The Last Mona Lisa, the international bestsellers The Death Artist, and the Nero award-winning Anatomy of Fear. His bestselling memoir The Widower’s Notebook has been called The Year of Magical Thinking from a male perspective and was a featured segment on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Santlofer is the editor of seven anthologies, including The New York Times notable book It Occurs to Me that I Am America. As an artist, his work is in such collections as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago and Tokyo’s Institute of Contemporary Art. His eighth novel, Ten Perfect Guests, will be published in September 2026. He lives in NYC where he is currently at work on a new novel. Photo © Douglas Lyle Thompson
Maria Semple
Maria Semple is the bestselling author of Today Will Be Different, Where’d You Go, Bernadette, and This One Is Mine. Her novels have been translated into 40 languages. Before writing fiction, Maria wrote for TV. She lives in New York. Photo © Beowulf Sheehan
Reena Shah
Reena Shah is a writer, editor, and teacher. Her work has been featured in the Masters Review, Electric Literature, Joyland, BBC, the American Prospect, National Geographic, and the Guardian, among other publications. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies, Millay Arts, Tin House, Sustainable Arts Foundation, Cuttyhunk Island Residency, and the Fulbright Foundation. She received an MFA in fiction from the Michener Center for Writers, where she won the Keene Prize for Literature. For many years she was a kathak dancer in New York and India. She now lives on Roosevelt Island, NY with her family and teaches in a public school. Photo © Paisley Media
Laura Sims
Laura Sims’s third novel, The Man, is due out from Putnam in July of 2026. Her novels How Can I Help You (2023) and Looker (2019) have been on Best Books lists in The New York Times, Vogue, People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Real Simple, Publishers Weekly, and more. An award-winning poet, Sims has published four poetry collections; her essays and poems have appeared in The New Republic, Boston Review, Lit Hub, and Electric Lit. She lives in New Jersey, where she works part-time as a children’s librarian.
Kathryn Stockett
Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. She lives in New York City and Mississippi. Photo © Ken Kochey
Victor Suthammanont
Victor Suthammanont is the author of Hollow Spaces, his debut novel and a New York Times Best Mystery and Notable Book of 2025. Victor is the author of the Audible Original Little Surrenders. His second novel, The Henchman, will be released in 2027. He lives in New York City, where he is a lawyer.
Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney is the author of the instant New York Times bestselling novels The Nest (named a best book of the year by People, the Washington Post, and NPR) and Good Company (a Read with Jenna selection). She has been a guest on Today, Late Night with Seth Meyers and NPR’s All Things Considered. Her work has been translated into more than 28 languages, and The Nest is in development as a limited series with AMC Studios. Sweeney holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She and her husband live in New York City. Photo © Leyna Noelani Ambron
Colm Tóibín
Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including Long Island, an Oprah’s Book Club Pick; The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; and Nora Webster, winner of the Hawthornden Prize, as well as three story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and was named the 2022–2024 Laureate for Irish Fiction by the Arts Council of Ireland. In 2021, he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature. Photo © Reynaldo Rivera
John J. Trause
John J. Trause, the Director of Oradell Public Library (Bergen County, New Jersey), is the author of The Box of Torrone; a book of poetry about various flavors of the Italian nougat torrone and cities in Italy; Why Sing?, a book of traditional and experimental poems; Picture This: For Your Eyes and Ears, a book of poems on art, film, and photography; Exercises in High Treason, a book of fictive translations, found poems, and manipulated texts; Eye Candy for Andy (13 Most Beautiful… Poems for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests); Inside Out, Upside Down, and Round and Round; Seriously Serial; and Latter-Day Litany, the latter staged Off Broadway. He is a founder of the William Carlos Williams Poetry Cooperative in Rutherford, N. J., and the former host and curator of its monthly reading series.
Adriana Trigiani
Adriana Trigiani is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-one books of fiction and nonfiction, including The View from Lake Como, The Good Left Undone, The Shoemaker's Wife and Lucia, Lucia. An award-winning playwright, television writer/producer, and filmmaker, Trigiani wrote and directed the major motion picture of her debut novel, Big Stone Gap, adapted her novel, Very Valentine, for television, and directed the award-winning documentary, Queens of the Big Time. Adriana hosts the hit podcast, You Are What You Read, where she interviews authors and luminaries about the books that built their souls. Adriana is co-founder of the Origin Project, a year-round, in-school writing program that has served over 25,000 students since its inception in 2014. She lives in Greenwich Village with her family. Connect with Adriana on all platforms here: linktr.ee/adrianatrigiani
Ann E. Wallace
Ann E. Wallace, PhD is Poet Laureate Emeritus of Jersey City, New Jersey. She is author of three full-length collections: Keeping Room, Days of Grace and Silence: A Chronicle of COVID’ s Long Haul, and Counting by Sevens. Her work is anthologized in The Nature of Our Times, The Big Brutal Act, The Long COVID Reader, and other collections, and her essays have appeared in Huffington Post, USA Today, and other media outlets. Wallace hosts and produces The WildStory: A Podcast of Poetry and Plants by the Native Plant Society of New Jersey. She holds a doctorate in English Literature from The Graduate Center of The City University of New York, a master’s degree in Women’s Studies from Rutgers University, and is a Professor of English at New Jersey City University. Photo © Reena Rose Sibayan
BJ Ward
BJ Ward’s most recent book is Jackleg Opera (North Atlantic/Random House). His poems have appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, The New York Times, TriQuarterly, The Normal School, Painted Bride Quarterly, The Sun, and The Pushcart Prize Anthology. He is the recipient of two Distinguished Artist Fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and has received the Governor’s Award in Arts Education from the State of New Jersey. He lives in northwest New Jersey near the Musconetcong River. His website is bj-ward.com.
Valerie Wilson Wesley
Valerie Wilson Wesley writes mysteries, novels and children’s books. She has written two popular series, the Odessa Jones Mysteries and the Tamara Hayle Mystery series. Her books for children include the Willimena Rules! series and the Afro-bets Book of Black Heroes co-written with Wade Hudson. Her mysteries have been published in Germany, France and the UK. She is a former executive editor of Essence magazine and a member of Crime Writers of Color, Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America. She has also written novels under the pen name Savanna Welles. valeriewilsonwesley.com
Michael T. Young
Michael T. Young’s fourth collection of poetry, Mountain Climbing a River, was published by Broadstone Books in January 2026. His third full-length collection, The Infinite Doctrine of Water, was longlisted for the Julie Suk Award. He received a Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Jean Pedrick Chapbook Award. In 2022 he received honorable mention for the New Jersey Poets Prize. His poetry has been featured on Verse Daily and The Writer’s Almanac. It has also appeared in numerous journals including I-70, The Journal of New Jersey Poets, Rattle, and Vox Populi.
Vincent Yu
Vincent Yu is a sales manager at W.W. Norton/Liveright and the winner of the 2021 Ashley Bourne Prize for fiction from Ploughshares. Seek Immediate Shelter is his debut novel. His work has been published in Prairie Schooner, StoryQuarterly, Ninth Letter, Able Muse, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn.
Non-Fiction
Zain E. Asher
Zain Ejiofor Asher was born to first-generation Nigerian parents in South London. A graduate of Oxford University and Columbia University, she is currently an anchor for CNN International. She currently co-anchors One World with Zain and Bianna, a global news program on the network. Ejiofor Asher’s brothers are Oscar-nominated actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave), successful entrepreneur Obinze, and medical doctor Kandibe. She lives in the New York area with her husband and two sons. Photo © Beowulf Sheehan
Luke Barr
Luke Barr is the grandnephew of M.F.K. Fisher and an editor and news director at Travel + Leisure magazine, where he has been on staff since 2003. He had been executive editor of Gear and senior editor at Brill's Content/Inside.com. Raised in the Bay Area, he went to school in Switzerland and graduated from Harvard. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, architect Yumi Moriwaki, and their two daughters. Photo © Benoit Peverelli
Sylvie Bigar
Through fiction and non-fiction, writer Sylvie Bigar explores the intersections of food, travel, culture, and history. In her poignant food memoir, Cassoulet Confessions: Food, France, Family and the Stew that Saved my Soul, she spans the line between generational trauma and culinary obsession. Her writing appears in The New York Times, Washington Post, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Travel & Leisure, National Geographic Traveler and Forbes.com among others. She is at work on an historical novel that melds a French family saga with the global turmoil of the 1930s and 1940s. Sylvie can be found at www.sbigar.com. Photo © Thomas Schauer
Julia Cooke
Julia Cooke is the author of the books Come Fly the World, a Goodreads Choice Awards finalist and a Malala Yousafzai’s Literati book club pick, and The Other Side of Paradise. Her essays have appeared in A Public Space, Salon, The Threepenny Review, Smithsonian, Tin House, and the Virginia Quarterly Review. Her reporting has been published in Condé Nast Traveler, The New York Times, Playboy, and other publications. She holds an MFA from Columbia University. Photo © Patrick Proctor
Arielle Eckstut & David Henry Sterry
Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry are co-founders of The Book Doctors, a company dedicated to helping authors get their books published. They are co-authors of The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published: How To Write It, Sell It, and Market It… Successfully (Workman, 2015). Arielle was a literary agent for over 25 years at The Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency. She is the author of 10 books and the co-founder of the iconic brand, LittleMissMatched. David is the bestselling author of 16 books. His first book was translated into a dozen languages; his latest book was featured on the cover of the New York Times Book Review. They are co-creators, with Kwame Alexander, of America’s Next Great Author. They have appeared in, among others, The New York Times, The Washington Post, People magazine and The Wall Street Journal.
John Fugelsang
John Fugelsang has been murdered on CSI and picketed by the Westboro Baptist Church. He’s a Drama League–nominated actor, comedian, and broadcaster who’s hosted many TV shows and podcasts, including the acclaimed Tell Me Everything series on SiriusXM Progress. He’s gotten George Harrison to give his final performance on VH1, debated Jerry Falwell and David Duke, and made many appearances on MSNBC, FOX News, and CNN. His epic PBS road trip film on the American Dream, Dream On, directed by Roger Weisberg, was named Best Documentary at the New York Independent Film Festival. Fugelsang lives in New York City with his family. Photo © Victor Jeffreys
Anand Gopal
Anand Gopal is a writer for TheNew Yorker. He is the author of No Good Men Among the Living and writes about democracy, inequality, and conflict. He has twice been a Pulitzer finalist for his reporting, and has won a National Magazine Award for his writing on the Middle East. Photo © Leonor Grave
Rachel Eliza Griffiths
Rachel Eliza Griffiths is a poet, visual artist, and novelist. She is a recipient of the Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award and the Paterson Poetry Prize and was a finalist for a NAACP Image Award. Griffiths is also a recipient of fellowships from many organizations, including Cave Canem Foundation, Kimbilio, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and Yaddo. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Tin House, and other publications. Her debut novel, Promise, was a Kirkus Reviews and Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year.
Siri Hustvedt
Siri Hustvedt is the author of a book of poetry, five collections of essays, two works of nonfiction, and seven novels, including the international bestsellers What I Loved and The Summer Without Men. Her novel The Blazing World was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Los Angeles Book Prize for fiction. She is the recipient of many other awards, including the Gabarron Prize for Thought and Humanities, the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature, an American Academy of Arts and Letters prize, and the Sigourney Award for expanding psychoanalytic thought. She has a PhD in English from Columbia University and is a lecturer in psychiatry at Weil Cornell Medical College in New York. Her work has been translated into over thirty languages. Photo © Spencer Ostrander
Alexandra Jacobs
Alexandra Jacobs is a book critic for The New York Times and author of Still Here: The Madcap, Nervy, Singular Life of Elaine Stritch. Photo © Nancy Crampton
Benilde Little
Benilde Little is a bestselling author whose groundbreaking fiction challenges entrenched stereotypes of African-Americans. Her debut novel, Good Hair, which was selected as one of the best books of the year by the Los Angeles Times, explored the world of the Black upper middle class. In addition to her three other novels, The Itch, Acting Out, and Who Does She Think She Is?, she has written a poignant memoir, Welcome to My Breakdown about what happened when her beloved mother died, the loss of her cherished father-in-law coincided with menopause, a cancer scare and near financial collapse. She was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award and the Hurston Wright Award. She has been a creative writing professor at Ramapo College, The City College of New York, and taught writing at The Writers Circle in Montclair, and private memoir-writing workshops in Newark and Montclair.
Loubna Mrie
Loubna Mrie is a Syrian journalist, photographer, and writer, and a frequent commentator on Syrian and Middle Eastern affairs. The recipient of fellowships and residencies from Magnum Foundation, Ucross Foundation, and MacDowell, she has published work in The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, The Nation, Time, and the London Review of Books, among others. Photo © Joanna Morrissey
Daniel Okrent
Daniel Okrent is the prize-winning author of seven books. Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition was cited by the American Historical Association as the year’s best book on American history. Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in history. Among his many jobs in publishing, he was corporate editor-at-large at Time Inc., and was the first public editor of the New York Times. Okrent served on the board of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery for 12 years, including a four-year term (2003-2007) as chairman. A native of Detroit and a graduate of the University of Michigan, he now lives half the year in New York and the other half on Cape Cod with his wife, poet Rebecca Okrent; they have two grown children.
Eugene Robinson
Eugene Robinson is a Pulitzer Prize–winning American journalist, former columnist, and associate editor of The Washington Post, author, and political analyst. His prior positions included foreign editor, London correspondent, and South American correspondent. Born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, he graduated from the University of Michigan and worked at the San Francisco Chronicle before joining The Washington Post. Photo © Bill O’Leary
Eric Roston
Eric Roston is a journalist and author, who has reported from places as far-flung as the Vatican, rural India, Silicon Valley, the Kremlin, the White House and beyond. He has specialized in science, climate change and energy during more than two decades of writing, mostly at TIME Magazine and Bloomberg News. He is the author of The Carbon Age: How Life's Core Element Has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat. He lives in Montclair.
Mark Rotella
Mark Rotella is the director of the Coccia Institute for the Italian Experience at Montclair State University, where he is also a professor of creative writing. He is a former senior editor at Publishers Weekly, where he covered cookbooks and books on food and drink. He has written two books, both published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux: Stolen Figs: And Other Adventures in Calabria and Amore: The Story of Italian American Song.
Jim Windolf
Jim Windolf is a features editor at The New York Times. He has published articles, reviews, essays, and humor pieces in Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, New York magazine, Rolling Stone and other publications. Additionally, his short fiction has appeared in Ontario Review, 3:AM Magazine, Puerto del Sol and other literary journals. He lives in New York City. Photo © Susan Rushing
Warren Zanes
Dr. Warren Zanes is a New York Times bestselling author and a Grammy-nominated documentary producer. Warren has taught at several American universities, currently, New York University. He is the editor of collections on Jimmie Rodgers and Tom Petty, has written books including Dusty in Memphis, Revolutions in Sound: Fifty Years of Warner Bros. Records, Petty: The Biography, and Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska. A former member of Warner Bros. recording artists The Del Fuegos, he has released four solo recordings with Dualtone and is currently a member of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon’s Rogue Oliphant, co-writing songs with Muldoon. His book on Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska was made into the 20th Century Studios film Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere. Currently at work on a full biography of Bruce Springsteen’s life and career, with Springsteen’s participation, Zanes continues to write and play his own music, with a new recording scheduled for release in 2026. Photo © Chris Harford
Other Speakers
Jeh Johnson
Jeh Johnson is the former Secretary of Homeland Security. Prior to that he was General Counsel of the Department of Defense, General Counsel of the Department of the Air Force, and an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York. Secretary Johnson is now co-chair of the Board of Trustees of Columbia University, and on the board of directors of MetLife and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. He is a regular commentator on NBC’s Meet The Press, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, FOX’s Fox & Friends, CNN, NewsNation and other news networks. For much of his career, Johnson was a trial attorney in private practice with the law firm Paul, Weiss, and he is also a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. Johnson retired from Paul Weiss in June 2025. Johnson is a graduate of Morehouse College and Columbia Law School and the recipient of 13 honorary degrees.
Kate Tuttle
Kate Tuttle is a book critic, essayist, and editor. A past president of the National Book Critics Circle and judge for the National Book Award, she edits the books pages of the Boston Globe. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and elsewhere. A Kansas native, she now lives in New Jersey after stints in Boston and Atlanta.
Susan Weinberg
Susan Weinberg has had a long career in book publishing, most recently as EVP, Publisher for Workman Publishing at Hachette Book Group. She has also given workshops on understanding publishing financials.