Char Adams is a reporter for NBC News, and former reporter for People, and her writing on race and identity has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, Oprah Daily, Vice, Teen Vogue, and Bustle. She hosted COVID University New York, one of the first podcasts to chronicle the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. She is a proud Philadelphia native and now lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Maura Cheeks is the author of Acts of Forgiveness, named a most anticipated book by Elle, The Root, Real Simple, and The Millions. Maura was named one of “10 Writers to Watch” by Publishers Weekly. Her other work has been published in the Paris Review, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, Tin House, Lenny Letter, and others. In 2019, she was awarded the Masthead Reporting Residency for The Atlantic’s first residency program where she worked on the feature article that would later inspire the idea for her novel. She is the owner and general manager of Liz’s Book Bar in Brooklyn.

Jake Cumsky-Whitlock is co-owner of Solid State Books (SSB) in Washington, D.C., the store he co-founded in 2017. SSB has two locations that sell new children’s and adult books, stationery, and other book-related gifts. His bookselling career began in 2004 at Kramerbooks & Afterwords in Washington, D.C. Jake currently serves on the Board of Directors for the ABA and Bookshop.org. He was a member of ABA’s Booksellers Advisory Council, as well as the chair of the Spring 2020 Adult Indies Introduce panel. He holds a B.A. in English Literature and Art History from the University of Virginia, and an M.A. in Creative Writing from Boston University. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, 14- and 11-year-old sons, and 8-year-old daughter.

DJ Johnson is a visionary entrepreneur, community leader, and advocate for social change. He is the founder of Baldwin & Co., NOLA Art Bar, and the Baldwin & Co. Foundation, cultural hubs that intersect literature, social justice, and community engagement. A proud New Orleans native, Johnson graduated from Clark Atlanta University and Georgia State University, earning degrees in Management Information Systems and an MBA. His cultural contributions shine through Baldwin & Co., a celebrated bookstore and forum for dialogues on race, justice, and progress, and NOLA Art Bar, recognized among the city’s best. The Baldwin & Co. Foundation addresses disparities in education and income through scholarships and financial literacy initiatives.

Janet Webster Jones, the daughter of a librarian, is a retired educator from the Detroit Public Schools, where she spent a 40-year career. She has been in the bookselling business since 1989. Janet opened her first brick and mortar store, Source Booksellers, inside the Spiral Collective, a shared space with three other woman-owned, African American businesses on Cass Avenue and Willis Street in Detroit’s Midtown area in 2002. Janet is often invited to participate in city wide committees, local NPR programs and non-profit association’s events. In 2022, she was invited to serve on the nonfiction panel for the National Book Awards; a highlight of her long-time service to literary life.

Rakia Clark is an executive editor at Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. She acquires serious, literary and narrative nonfiction; and gorgeously written, plot-driven novels and short story collections. Books on Rakia’s list have won the Kirkus Prize, been longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence, been finalists for the NAACP Awards, and are routinely recognized in best-of-the-year roundups. In all cases, she looks for writers who have something to say. An Atlanta native, Rakia lives in New York City but refuses to root for the Yankees. The Knicks are growing on her.

Carina Guiterman is VP, Executive Editor at Simon & Schuster. Her taste spans many genres: domestic and psychological suspense, coming of age, family sagas, adventure stories, narrative nonfiction, and more. She is drawn to books that challenge the expected tropes of a genre and combine captivating, smart prose with strong narrative momentum to pull the reader in and illuminate contradictions and complexities hidden inside all of us. A discerning editor whose taste sits smack-dab in the Venn diagram of commercial and literary, her recent books include Swift River, Florence Adler Swims Forever, and Broken Country. Carina is presenting Daria Lavelle's stunning debut, Aftertaste, which asks what if you could have one last meal with someone you've loved and lost?

Alice Austen won the John Cassavetes Award for her debut film Give Me Liberty (writer/producer). She is a past resident of the Royal Court Theatre and her internationally produced plays include Animal Farm (Steppenwolf Theatre), Water, Cherry Orchard Massacre, and Girls in the Boat (Dramatic Publishing). She studied creative writing under Seamus Heaney at Harvard, where she received her JD, after which she moved to Brussels and lived on Place Brugmann. Austen currently lives in Milwaukee and is working on a new film and her next novel.

Jessica Berger Gross is the author of the memoir Estranged: Leaving Family and Finding Home. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Cut, Longreads, and many other publications. She lives in Maine with her husband and teenage son. Hazel Says No is her first novel.

Julie Clark is the New York Times bestselling author of The Lies I Tell and The Last Flight, both of which were also #1 international bestsellers and have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. She lives in Los Angeles with her family and a goldendoodle with poor impulse control.

Sarah Landenwich is a writer and writing educator. Also a classically trained pianist, her debut novel The Fire Concerto was inspired by her love of music of the Romantic period. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky with her husband and daughter.

Kristina McMorris is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author of two novellas and seven historical novels, including the million-copy bestseller Sold on a Monday. The recipient of more than twenty national literary awards, she previously hosted weekly TV shows for Warner Bros. and an ABC affiliate, beginning at age nine with an Emmy Award-winning program. Kristina lives near Portland, Oregon.

Alice Murphy is the pen name for a prolific Hallmark screenwriter and romance author from the deep south. She collects secret recipes, secret admirers, and secret histories.

Sarah Penner is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The London Seance Society and The Lost Apothecary, which will be translated into forty languages worldwide and is set to be turned into a drama series by Fox. Sarah spent 13 years in corporate finance and now writes full-time. She and her husband live in Florida. To learn more, visit SarahPenner.com.

Thomas Schlesser is the author of several works of nonfiction about art, artists, and the relationship between art and politics in the 20th century. He is the grandson of André Schlesser, known as Dadé, a singer and cabaret performer of Roma origins who founded the Cabaret L'Écluse. Mona’s Eyes is Schlesser’s American debut. It was a #1 bestseller in France and has been translated into thirty-seven languages, including Braille.

Michael Thomas received his BA from Hunter College and his MFA from Warren Wilson College. He is the author of Man Gone Down, winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, A Public Space, and the anthology The Book of Dads. He teaches at Hunter College and lives in Brooklyn.

Cadwell Turnbull is the award-winning author of The Lesson and No Gods, No Monsters and a member of Darkly Lem, along with four other authors, dressed in an impeccably tailored trench coat: Josh Eure, Craig Lincoln, Ben Murphy, and M. Darusha Wehm. They live in an Earth-type locality in the Central Cluster with their five kids, several spouses, and a modest menagerie.

Ibi Zoboi is the New York Times-bestselling author of American Street, a National Book Award Finalist; Pride, a remix of Pride and Prejudice; and the Walter Award and LA Times Book Prize-winning Punching the Air, co-written with Exonerated Five member Yusef Salaam. Ibi is a two-time Coretta Scott King Award honoree for The People Remember and Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler, and the winner of the 2024 CSK Award for Nigeria Jones. She is the editor of the anthology Black Enough and has written Okoye to the People, a Black Panther novel for Marvel. Born in Haiti and raised in New York City, Ibi lives in New Jersey with her family.