Scott Cooper made his feature film directorial debut, in 2009, with Fox Searchlight’s award-winning, CRAZY HEART, which he also wrote and produced. The film, which starred Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell, and Robert Duvall, earned three Academy Award...
Alyson Richman is the USA Today and #1 international bestselling author of several historical novels, including The Velvet Hours, The Garden of Letters, and The Lost Wife, which is currently in development for a major motion picture. Alyson graduated from Wellesley...
Shaunna J. Edwards has a BA in literature from Harvard College and a JD from NYU School of Law. A former corporate lawyer, she now works in diversity, equity and inclusion. She is a native Louisianian, raised in New Orleans, and currently lives in Harlem with her...
Jo Piazza is a bestselling author, podcast creator, and award-winning journalist. She is the national and international bestselling author of many critically acclaimed novels and nonfiction books including We Are Not Like Them, Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win, The...
Christine Pride is a writer, editor, and longtime publishing veteran. She’s held editorial posts at many different trade imprints, including Doubleday, Broadway, Crown, Hyperion, and Simon & Schuster. As an editor, Christine has published a range of books, with a...
Margo Jefferson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural critic and a recipient of the 2022 Windham-Campbell Prize in Nonfiction. She has published three books: Constructing a Nervous System: a memoir; Negroland: a memoir, which won the 2015 National Book Critics Circle...
Isaac Fitzgerald is the New York Times bestselling author of Dirtbag, Massachusetts (winner of a New England Book Award). He appears frequently on The Today Show and is also the author of the bestselling children’s book How to Be a Pirate as well as the co-author of...
Nicole Chung is the author of the forthcoming memoir A Living Remedy (April 4, 2023) and the national bestseller All You Can Ever Know (2018). Named a Best Book of the Year by over twenty outlets, including NPR, The Washington Post, Time, and Library Journal, All You...
Zak Salih is the author of the novel Let's Get Back to the Party, recommended as a must-read book in 2021 by O, the Oprah Magazine; BuzzFeed; Cosmopolitan; The Millions; Electric Literature; Vanity Fair; The Advocate; Harper's Bazaar; Kirkus Reviews; Lambda Literary;...
Rion Amilcar Scott is the author of the story collection, The World Doesn’t Require You (Norton/Liveright, August 2019), a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and winner of the 2020 Towson Prize for Literature. His debut story collection, Insurrections...
Leslye Penelope’s debut novel Song of Blood & Stone was chosen as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time. The novel also won the inaugural award for Best Self-Published Fiction from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association before it...
Glory Edim is the founder of Well-Read Black Girl, a podcast and digital platform that celebrates the uniqueness of Black literature and sisterhood. She edited the Well-Read Black Girl anthology in 2018, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and named a best...
Nic Stone is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin, the novel that launched her career in 2017 and encourages readers of all ages to examine the biases in their own lives and to have honest discussions about race in today’s world. Nic’s mission is...
Toni Jensen is the author of Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land, a finalist for the Dayton Peace Prize and a New York Times Editors’ Choice book (Ballantine 2020). An NEA Creative Writing Fellowship recipient in 2020, Jensen's essays have appeared in Orion,...
Jennifer Clement is President Emerita of PEN International and the only woman to hold the office of President (2015-2021) since the organization was founded in 1921. Under her leadership the groundbreaking PEN International Women’s Manifesto and The Democracy of the...
Tiphanie Yanique is the author of the novel, Monster in the Middle, which was published in 2021, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards, and was on numerous best of the year lists. Tiphanie is also the author of the poetry collection, Wife, which won the Bocas...
R.O. Kwon’s nationally bestselling first novel, The Incendiaries, is being translated into seven languages and was named a best book of the year by over forty publications. The Incendiaries was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award and the...
Christopher Bollen is the author of five novels, including A Beautiful Crime in 2020. His latest novel, The Lost Americans, will be published by Harper in March 2023. Bollen also writes for a number of publications including the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and...
Kaitlyn Greenidge's debut novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman, was one of the New York Times Critics’ Top 10 Books of 2016 and a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. She is a contributing writer for the New York Times and the features director at...
Bethanne Patrick is a writer, author, and book critic whose work appears regularly in the LA Times and has appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, at NPR Books and Lit Hub, and many other publications. She is First VP and Programs Chair for the PEN/Faulkner...
Born into the Vietnam War in 1973, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai grew up witnessing the war’s devastation and its aftermath. She worked as a street seller and rice farmer before winning a scholarship to attend university in Australia. She is the author of eight books of poetry,...
Jonathan Lee is the author of four novels, most recently The Great Mistake. He is the editorial director of Bloomsbury.
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Louise Erdrich
Cherie Jones
Margaret Verble
Kali Fajardo-Anstine
Tommy Orange
Rumaan Alam
Mateo Askaripour
Kevin Kwan
Leigh Bardugo
Eugenia Kim
Rebecca Makkai
Charles Baxter
Sean Murphy
Nnedi Okorafor
Jenny Offill
T.C. Boyle
Souvankham Thammavongsa
Matthew Davis
Abdi Nor Iftin
Aleksandar Hemon
G. Willow Wilson
Mathangi Subramanian
Nicole Dennis-Benn
Yaa Gyasi
Deesha Philyaw
Steve Wiegenstein
Danielle Evans
Brian Castleberry
Robin Wasserman
Rufi Thorpe
Matthew Salesses
Bobbie Ann Mason
K-Ming Chang
Airea D. Matthews
N.K. Jemisin
Tananarive Due
Sheree Renée Thomas
Jennifer Clement
Luis Alberto Urrea
Susan Muaddi Darraj
Osama Alomar
Laila Halaby
Elizabeth Hand
Mark Z. Danielewski
Brian Evenson
Dan Chaon
Scott McCloud
Ebony Flowers
Gene Luen Yang
Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez
Douglas Stuart
Min Jin Lee
Angie Thomas
Reginald Dwayne Betts
DaMaris B. Hill, PhD
Luis J. Rodriguez
Amber Sparks
Carmen Maria Machado
Kelly Link
Lesley Nneka Arimah
Isaac Fitzgerald
Esmé Weijun Wang
Zack McDermott
Winner of the 2020 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story Lydia Davis's ESSAYS ONE, her first nonfiction book, was published in 2019 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Lydia Davis is the author of VARIETIES OF DISTURBANCE, which was a National Book Award...
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Board President
Willy Vlautin
Richard Powers
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