Chris Abani
NYT Bestselling Novelist
Nigerian-born Poet
Elizabeth Acevedo
Performance Poet & Novelist
National Book Award
Diane Ackerman
NYT Bestselling Author
Naturalist, Essayist, Poet
Richard Blanco
Obama's Inaugural Poet
Poetry Education Ambassador
Jericho Brown
Pulitzer Prize-winning Poet MacArthur Genius Award
The Tradition
Bryan Doerries
Author & Translator
Artistic Director: Theater of War Productions
Camille Dungy
Award-winning Poet
Acclaimed Essayist & Critic
Bernardine Evaristo
Award-winning Novelist
Booker Prize Winner
Carolyn Forché
National Book Award Finalist
Memoir: What You Have Heard Is True
Adam Gopnik
Int'l Bestselling Author
New Yorker Staff Writer
Joy Harjo
US Poet Laureate (2019-22)
NBCC Lifetime Achievement Award
Memoirs: Crazy Brave, Poet Warrior
Terrance Hayes
MacArthur "Genius" Award
National Book Award
Juan Felipe Herrera
US Poet Laureate (2015-17)
Performer & Activist
Major Jackson
Acclaimed Author
Former Host of The Slowdown
Roll Deep
Taylor Mali
Performance Poet
What Teachers Make
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
NYT Bestselling Nature Writer
Acclaimed Poet
Sought-after School Speaker
Pádraig Ó Tuama
Acclaimed Irish Poet
Podcast Host: Poetry Unbound
Claudia Rankine
NYT Bestselling Author
NBCCA & Forward Prize
MacArthur Genius Award
George Saunders
NYT Bestselling Writer
Booker Prize Winner
Danté Stewart
Acclaimed Memoirist
Belonging & Religion
Nafissa Thompson-Spires
Award-winning Fiction Author
PEN Open Book Award
National Book Award Longlist
Whiting Award Winner
Natasha Trethewey
US Poet Laureate (2012-2014)
Pulitzer Prize-winning Poet
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Novelist & Memoirist
Literary & Social Activist
Nobel Prize Nominee
Frank B. Wilderson III
Award-winning Author
Poet, Scholar, Activist
Karen Tei Yamashita
Award-winning Author
Lifetime Achievement Award
Inheritance: Familial, Cultural, Artistic