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.
Nathaniel Rich is the author, most recently, of two works of nonfiction on environmental themes: Second Nature, which includes the story that serves as the basis for the film Dark Waters; and Losing Earth, a finalist for the PEN/E.O.
Imani Perry is the Henry A. Morss, Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Perry is the author of 8 books, including the New York Times Bestseller South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation which received the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction, the inaugural Inside Literary Prize, and was named one of President Obama’s favorite books of 2022.
Richard Ford was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and (as of December) resumed with his wife Kristina Ford their long-standing residence in New Orleans. He is the author of 13 novels and story collections, plus a memoir about his parents. He has for years written on culture and politics for many European newspapers, including Le Monde, El Pais Corrierre della Sera, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt, The Irish Times and The Guardian of London, His fiction has been recognized
Prof. Richard Campanella, geographer and associate dean for research with the Tulane School of Architecture and holder of the Jean and Saul A. Mintz Professorship, is the author of fifteen books and 300 articles on New Orleans and Louisiana geography, history, urbanism, and related topics.
Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, a CNN Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He has received seven honorary doctorates in American Studies. He works in many capacities in the world of public history, including for boards, museums, colleges and historical societies. Six of his books were named New York Times “Notable Books of the Year” and seven became New York Times bestsellers.
Jason Berry is an author and documentary producer. "City of a Million Dreams: New Orleans History at Year 300" [2018] is the subject of his latest film which treats jazz funerals as a prism
Michelle Miller is a co-host of "CBS Saturday Morning." She also files reports for "48 Hours" and anchors CBS News Streaming’s “Eye on America.” The award-winning journalist joined CBS News in 2004 and has reported on stories of national and international importance. Her reporting has earned her several prestigious journalism awards including an Emmy for her series of reports on the National Guard's Youth Challenge Academy.
Thomas Beller is author, most recently, of Lost in the Game: A Book About Basketball. His biography, J.D. Salinger: The Escape Artist, won the New York City Book Award for biography/memoir. His other books include Seduction Theory: Stories, The Sleep-Over Artist: A Novel. His work has been reprinted in Best American Short Stories, The Art of the Essay, and numerous other anthologies.
Ken Auletta launched the Annals of Communications columns and profiles for The New Yorker magazine in 1992. He is the author of twelve books, including five national bestsellers: Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way; Greed And Glory On Wall Street: The Fall of The House of Lehman; The Highwaymen: Warriors of the Information Super Highway; World War 3.0: Microsoft and Its Enemies; and Googled, The End of the World As We Know It, which was published in November of 2009.
