Michael Tisserand is a New Orleans-based author whose 2017 book, KRAZY: GEORGE HER-RIMAN, A LIFE AND BLACK AND WHITE explored the art and life of cartoonist George Her-riman, New Orleans-born creator of the comic strip “Krazy Kat.” THE NEW YORK TIMES includ-ed KRAZY in its one hundred notable books for 2017. KRAZY also received the Eisner Award for best comics-related book, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle and PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld awards for biography.

Evan Thomas is the author of ten books, including The Wise Men (with Walter Isaacson), The Man to See, The Very Best Men, Robert Kennedy, John Paul Jones, Sea of Thunder, The War Lovers, Ike’s Bluff, Being Nixon, and First: Sandra Day O’Connor. John Paul Jones, Sea of Thunder, Being Nixon, and First were all New York Times bestsellers.

Michael Strecker is a writer from Louisiana. His debut novel, "The Knights of Wade" was released in the spring of 2024, by Pelican Publishing.

Sue Strachan has written about New Orleans culture, food, history and current events for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, New Orleans Homes & Lifestyles, New Orleans Magazine, St. Charles Avenue, Preservation in Print, the Camellia Bean blog as well as other topics for Time (Asia) and HG magazine.  She also served as public relations director for the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

Richard Stengel is the former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy in the Obama administration. Prior to going to Washington, Stengel was the editor of TIME for seven years. He was also the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center. In the 1990s, he collaborated with Nelson Mandela on the South African’s autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom.” He is the author of a number of books, the most recent of which is “Information Wars: How We Lost the Global Battle Against Disinformation.” He is a political analyst for MSNBC.

Nick Spitzer is a Professor of Anthropology at Tulane. He has hosted & produced public radio’s American Routes, a weekly vernacular American music, interview and cultural program heard nationwide for 25 years. Nick founded the state of Louisiana Folklife Program (1978), where he helped create the Baton Rouge Blues Festival, Louisiana Folk Festival, Spanish Town Mardi Gras and granting programs for traditional artists and cultures statewide.

Dana Spiotta is the author of five novels, most recently Wayward, which was a New York Times Critics' Top Book of the Year. Spiotta has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rome Prize, the St. Francis College Literary Prize, and the John Updike Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She teaches in the Syracuse University Creative Writing Program.

Susan Spicer began her cooking career in New Orleans as an apprentice to Chef Daniel Bonnot at the Louis XVI Restaurant in 1979. Her resume includes staging with Chef Roland Durand in Paris, extensive travel in Europe and California, as well as stints at chef at Savoire Faire and the Bistro at Maison de Ville in New Orleans.

Katy Simpson Smith was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. She is the author of the novels The Story of Land and Sea, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and one of Vogue’s Best Books of 2014; Free Men; and The Everlasting, a New York Times Best Historical Fiction Book of 2020. Her writing has also appeared in The Washington Post, The Paris Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Oxford American, Granta, and elsewhere.

Savannah Sellers anchors Morning News NOW on NBC News’ streaming news network NBC News NOW, co-hosts Stay Tuned, NBC News’ flagship Gen Z news program on Snapchat and reports as a correspondent across NBC News.