
- Russell Banks
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Russell Banks Acclaimed Author of The Sweet Hereafter
Russell Banks grew up in a working-class world that has played a major role in shaping his writing. Through a dozen novels...
- A.S. Byatt
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A.S. Byatt Award-winning Novelist and Short Story Writer
British writer A.S. Byatt is the author of the international bestseller Possession and winner of the prestigious Booker Prize.
- Michael Chabon
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Michael Chabon Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novelist & Essayist
Michael Chabon transfixed readers across the world with the imaginative acrobatics of his bestseller The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay . . .
- Billy Collins
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Billy Collins United States Poet Laureate (2001-2003)
Billy Collins is an American phenomenon. No poet since Robert Frost has managed to combine high critical acclaim with such broad popular appeal.
- Bernard Cooper
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Bernard Cooper Award-winning Memoirist & Fiction Writer
With his razor-sharp wit and unsparing honesty, Bernard Cooper peels back layers of the familiar, exposing the surprising truths...
- Michael Cunningham
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Michael Cunningham Pulitzer Prize-winning Author
Michael Cunningham is the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist of The Hours & Home at the End of the World both of which have been made into feature films.
- Firoozeh Dumas
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Firoozeh Dumas Bestselling Iranian-American Author
Readers of all ages have loved her stories. Jimmy Carter called Funny in Farsi “A humorous and introspective chronicle of a life filled with love of family . . ."
- Anne Fadiman
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Anne Fadiman Award-winning Author, Essayist, and Editor
Fadiman's sensitive, incisive writing of the unbreachable gulf between the Hmong and American medical systems won her praise & awards.
- Jonathan Franzen
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Jonathan Franzen Award-winning Novelist The Corrections
Franzen's The Corrections was an enormous international bestseller, nominated for nearly every major book prize in the country.
- Alexandra Fuller
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Alexandra Fuller Journalist & Award-winning Author
Alexandra Fuller is the author of the memoir Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood & Scribbling the Cat . . .
- Ira Glass
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Ira Glass Radio Producer and Host, This American Life
Ira Glass is the host and producer of the public radio program This American Life. The show had its premiere on Chicago's public...
- Louise Gluck
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Louise Gluck United States Poet Laureate (2003–2004)
Winner of the Pulizer Prize, poet Louise Glück was United States Poet Laureate (2003-2004)
- Terry Gross
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Terry Gross Award-winning NPR Host, Fresh Air
As the host of Fresh Air, NPR’s weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues, Terry Gross is heard by 4.5 millions listeners each week
- Daniel Handler
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Daniel Handler Bestselling Author, (A.K.A Lemony Snicket)
Writers of the phenomenally popular Lemony Snicket books for children with over 53 million copies in print, Daniel Handler is also the bestselling novelist . . .
- Robert Hass
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Robert Hass United States Poet Laureate (1995-1997)
Robert Hass is, first of all, a poet of great eloquence, clarity, and force, whose work is rooted in the landscapes of his native Northern California.
- Seamus Heaney
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Seamus Heaney Nobel Laureate in Literature
Acclaimed Irish writer, Seamus Heaney's body of work is vast and includes a mix of poetry, prose, criticism, theatre and translation.
- Jane Hirshfield
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Jane Hirshfield Prize-winning Poet, Translator, and Essayist
Jane Hirshfield’s poetry speaks to the central issues of human existence—desire and loss, impermanence and beauty...
- David Henry Hwang
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David Henry Hwang Playwright (M. Butterfly) & Screenwriter
Throughout his career, playwright David Henry Hwang has explored the complexities of forging Eastern and Western cultures in a contemporary America
- Elizabeth Kolbert
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Elizabeth Kolbert Journalist and Author
Elizabeth Kolbert traveled from Alaska to Greenland, and visited top scientists, to get to the heart of the debate over global warming.
- Tony Kushner
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Tony Kushner Pulitzer Prize-winning Playwright
Tony Kushner forever changed the face of modern drama with his two-part prize-winning opus, Angels in America.
- Jhumpa Lahiri
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Jhumpa Lahiri Pulitzer Prize-winning Author
Jhumpa Lahiri received the Pulitzer Prize for Interpreter of Maladies her debut story collection that explores issues of love and identity among immigrants
- Anne Lamott
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Anne Lamott Best-selling Author of Traveling Mercies
Anne Lamott writes & speaks about subjects that begin with capital letters: Alcoholism, Motherhood, Jesus -- with self-effacing humor & ruthless honesty . . .
- Barry Lopez
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Barry Lopez National Book Award Winner & Nature Writer
To read Barry Lopez is to commune with a deep thinker. His writings have frequently been compared to those of Henry David Thoreau...
- Armistead Maupin
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Armistead Maupin Acclaimed Novelist: Tales of the City Series
Though Armistead Maupin was one of the first of a new breed of openly gay authors, his appeal has always resided in his inclusiveness...
- Frances Mayes
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Frances Mayes Bestselling Author Under the Tuscan Sun
Frances Mayes is the author of the now-classic Under the Tuscan Sun – a New York Times bestseller for more than 2 years and also a beloved film . . .
- Alexander McCall Smith
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Alexander McCall Smith Beloved & Acclaimed Scottish Novelist
Alexander McCall Smith's international bestselling series, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency have won both critical and popular acclaim for their humor & . . .
- W.S. Merwin
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W.S. Merwin Pulitzer Prize-winning Poet and Essayist
In a career spanning five decades, W.S. Merwin, poet, translator, and environmental activist, has become one of the most respected voices . . .
- Anchee Min
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Anchee Min Chinese/American Bestselling Author
Author of the memoir Red Azalea Anchee Min recounts her childhood in comunist China -- a story that has been compared to The Diary of Anne Frank
- Azar Nafisi
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Azar Nafisi Iranian/American Bestselling Author
Azar Nafisi is best-known as the author of the international bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books which...
- Kathleen Norris
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Kathleen Norris Bestselling Writer on Faith & Spirituality
Exploring the spiritual life, her work is intimate & historical, rich in poetry & meditations, brimming with exasperation & reverence, deeply grounded in . . .
- Naomi Shihab Nye
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Naomi Shihab Nye Award-winning Poet, Writer, & Educator
Palestinian/American writer, Naomi Shihab Nye is a “wandering poet" whose writing reaffirms our shared humanity . . .
- Sharon Olds
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Sharon Olds Award-winning Poet and Educator
Sharon Olds is the author of eight volumes of poetry. Her poetry, says Michael Ondaatje, is “pure fire in the hands,” and...
- Mary Oliver
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Mary Oliver Pulitzer Prize-winning Poet & Essayist
Mary Oliver’s poetry, with her lyrical connection to the natural world, has firmly established her in the highest realm of writers working today
- Michael Ondaatje
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Michael Ondaatje Booker Prize-winning Novelist
Michael Ondaatje is one of the world’s foremost writers – author of the international bestseller, The English Patient . . .
- Suzan-Lori Parks
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Suzan-Lori Parks Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright
Named one of TIME magazine’s “100 Innovators for the Next New Wave,” Suzan-Lori Parks is one of the most exciting voices in the American Theatre . . .
- Robert Pinsky
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Robert Pinsky United States Poet Laureate (1997–2000)
Robert Pinsky’s first two terms as United States Poet Laureate were marked by such visible dynamism, and such national...
- Michael Pollan
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Michael Pollan Bestselling Author In Defense of Food
With his two bestsellers, Omnivore's Dilemma & In Defense of Food Michael Pollan has captured the attention of those interested in healthier . . .
- David Rakoff
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David Rakoff Public Radio Humorist & Commentator
The wry and the heartfelt join in David Rakoff's prose to resurrect that most-neglected of literary virtues: wit.
- Adrienne Rich
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Adrienne Rich Distinguished Poet, Essayist, and Activist
There is no writer of comparable influence & achievement in the contemporary women's movement as the poet and theorist Adrienne Rich.
- Frank Rich
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Frank Rich Author & New York Times OP-Ed Columnist
Frank Rich is one of our most intrepid observers of American Life. Through his weekly essay in The New York Times, he fearlessly tackles . . .
- Luis Rodriguez
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Luis Rodriguez Award-winning Poet, Activist, and Author
Luis Rodriguez (author of Always Running) is convinced that a writer can change the world. Indeed it is through education and the power of words...
- Kay Ryan
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Kay Ryan United States Poet Laureate (2008-2010)
Kay Ryan’s intensely strange, yet humorous and musical poems have been compared to those of Emily Dickinson.
- Mark Salzman
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Mark Salzman Acclaimed Novelist & Memoirist
Mark Salzman is an award-winning novelist and nonfiction author who has written on a variety of subjects, from a graceful novel...
- Dr. Robert Sapolsky
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Dr. Robert Sapolsky Science & Nature Writer & Stress Expert
His perspective on the human condition comes from the ease with which he combines his insights from the field with his findings as a neuroscientist.
- Marjane Satrapi
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Marjane Satrapi Bestselling Artist & Author of Persepolis
Iranian artist and filmmaker, Marjane Satrapi is the creator of "Persepolis" -- both a bestselling comix memoir & also an award winning film.
- Orville Schell
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Orville Schell Author and Journalist
While best known as one of the country's most well informed and thoughtful observers on China, Orville Schell has also been...
- Eric Schlosser
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Eric Schlosser Bestselling Author and Journalist
Fast Food Nation, Reefer Madness, and Food, Inc.Eric Schlosser is a bestselling author and journalist. His writings about food, health, and the business of eating have changed the way America eats.
- Alice Sebold
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Alice Sebold Bestselling Author of The Lovely Bones
Rarely has an author had such an impact on international literature with her first novel, especially when it focuses on the dark subjects...
- David Sedaris
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David Sedaris Bestselling Author & New Yorker Contributor
David Sedaris has become one of America’s pre-eminent & bestselling humor writers. His NPR audio essays are considered classics.
- Scott Simon
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Scott Simon NPR Host, Weekend Edition & Author
Scott Simon brings a well-traveled perspective to his role as host of Weekend Edition Saturday from Ground Zero in NYC to ground zero in Kabul . . .
- Stephen Sondheim
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Stephen Sondheim Playwright, Composer, & Lyricist
The composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim is the most important artist to work in the American musical theater over the past half-century.
- Art Spiegelman
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Art Spiegelman Pulitzer Prize-winning Artist/Illustrator: MAUS
With her memoir MAUS, Art Spiegelman has almost single-handedly brought comic books out of the toy closet and onto the literature shelves.
- Amy Tan
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Amy Tan Acclaimed International Bestselling Author
Amy Tan is the author of many acclaimed & beloved novels, including The Joy Luck Club which is also a feature film . . .
- Sarah Vowell
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Sarah Vowell Bestselling Author: The Wordy Shipmates
She has written documentaries & monologues about everything from the Cherokee Trail of Tears, presidential libraries, Frank Sinatra to more personal . . .
- Chris Ware
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Chris Ware Award-winning Artist/Illustrator and Author
Ware's art is eclectic in its influences, and largely reflects his love of early 20th century American aesthetics in both cartooning & graphic design
- Terry Tempest Williams
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Terry Tempest Williams Conservationist, Writer & Activist
Terry Tempest Williams has been called "a citizen writer," a writer who speaks and speaks out eloquently on behalf of an ethical stance toward life



































