When you think of Sonia Manzano, you immediately think of children and television. Her most recent accomplishment was creating a children’s program, Alma’s Way, for PBS Kids. The series has won two Imagen Awards for Best Youth Programing, a 2022 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Preschool Animated Program, and a 2023 NAACP nomination for an Image Award. But what Ms. Manzano is best known for performing the role of Maria on Sesame Street for 44 seasons, where her work affected the lives of millions of parents and children and garnered her two Emmy Award nominations in addition to the National Academy of Arts and Science’s Lifetime Achievement Daytime Emmy in 2016. As a writer for the show, she took home 15 Emmys. In 2022, Manzano was honored with the Beacon Award from PBS. She is also an author whose most recent Scholastic novel, Coming Up Cuban, set in 1959, follows the lives of four children who represent different intersections of race and class during the Cuban Revolution.

Cynthia Nixon made her film debut in Little Darlings at 12 and her Broadway debut at 14 in The Philadelphia Story. Since then she’s appeared in more than 40 plays (a dozen on Broadway), scores of films and TV shows, and won 2 Emmys, 2 Tonys, and a Grammy. She is best known for her role as Miranda on HBO’s Sex and the City, and in the sequel series And Just Like That…. Nixon appeared on numerous "Best Actress of 2017" lists for her portrayal of Emily Dickinson in Terrence Davies' much-lauded film A Quiet Passion. In 2018 she ran for Governor of New York State, putting issues of economic, racial, and gender equality front and center. She and her wife, Christine Marinoni, live in Manhattan and have 3 children—Sam, Charlie, and Max. Recently, Nixon starred alongside June Squibb in Marjorie Prime on Broadway. She can currently be seen on Julian Fellowes’ The Gilded Age, also on HBO.

Zach Grenier has worked extensively on stage and received a Tony nomination for Moisés Kaufman’s 33 Variations for his performance as Ludwig van Beethoven. Films include She Said, Fight Club, Zodiac, Ride with the Devil, and Twister. He’s known on television for portraying David Lee on The Good Wife and its spin-off The Good Fight, Mayor Feratti on Ray Donovan, Andy Cramed on Deadwood, and Kenton on Alex Garland's Devs. Additional television series include Law & Order and 24. Grenier can currently be seen playing retired profiler Peter Olsen on FBI.

Andy Mientus is a writer and actor who has appeared on Broadway as Marius in the revival of Les Misérables, and Hanschen in the revival of Spring Awakening, which he co-conceived with director Michael Arden. On television, he was a series regular on the NBC musical drama Smash and the NBC/Universal series Gone. He also played Hartley Rathaway, a.k.a. the Pied Piper on the hit CW series The Flash. Additional television roles include Disinherited on FX, Grendel and Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings (GLAAD Media Award) both for Netflix, as well as Anger Management, Law & Order: SVU, Chasing Life, and the CBS pilot LFE. His Off-Broadway credits include the revival of Carrie at the Lucille Lortel Theater and The Jonathan Larson Project at the Orpheum Theater (Ghostlight Records). Additional theater credits include Wicked (National Tour), The Who’s Tommy (Denver Center), Moisés Kaufman’s revival of Bent (Mark Taper Forum), Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas (Studebaker Theater), and recently, Immediate Family (Blumenthal Arts, directed by Phylicia Rashad). Andy made his London stage debut in The View UpStairs at Soho Theatre. He wrote the book and lyrics to Burn All Night, produced by the American Repertory Theater, the middle-grade fiction series The Backstagers, and the musical WEST, which is currently being developed by Center Theatre Group and At Rise Creative with an eye toward future production. Andy’s debut novel, Fraternity, was recently published by Amulet Books/Abrams and is available online and in bookstores nationwide. Mientus trained at the University of Michigan immediately prior to making his professional debut in Spring Awakening directed by Michael Mayer.

Susan Pourfar has worked on and Off-Broadway for more than two decades, garnering an Obie Award, a Theater World Award, and the Clarence Derwent Award from Actor’s Equity. Her most recent stage appearances include the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize finalist Meet the Cartozians and the Broadway production of Mary Jane. Susan has appeared in a variety of award-winning television shows including The Beast in Me, Black Mirror, House of Cards, Scandal, The Sinner, Winning Time, and The Staircase. Films include Manchester by the Sea, In the Heights, A Journal for Jordan, and the upcoming independent feature Last Hand. She is currently working on the film Hello Darkness, and will appear in the Apple TV series The Off Weeks. Pourfar is a proud and frequent collaborator in staged readings of Howard Zinn’s Voices of a People’s History of the United States. She is currently reading Louis Sachar’s Wayside School series aloud for a home audience.

Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Female Persuasion, The Interestings, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, and The Wife, among other novels. A musical of The Interestings is in development. Wolitzer was the guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 2017, and also writes books for young readers. She is a faculty member in the Creative Writing Program at Stony Brook University, where she co-founded and co-directs BookEnds, a yearlong intensive for emerging novelists.

Lorraine Avila is an author and educator whose titles include Malcriada, Celestial Summer, and The Making of Yolanda La Bruja, which was voted one of 2023’s Best Books for Teens by the New York Public Library. Her work has appeared in Latino USA, Bitch Media, Teen Vogue, Refinery29, Asterix Journal, and Catapult, among other publications. Avila has been honored with grants and fellowships from the Pittsburgh Foundation, Writers Colony, and the University of Pittsburgh, among other institutions, and has taught writing workshops at New York University, Brown University, and Stanford University.

Elissa Nelson (1976-2013) was

Frank Sullivan (1892-1976) was a journalist, humorist, and longtime contributor to The New Yorker. His works include Innocent Bystandings, Broccoli and Old Lace, A Pearl in Every Oyster, A Rock in Every Snowball, The Night the Old Nostalgia Burned Down, and the posthumous collection Frank Sullivan at His Best. Sullivan’s papers are held by his hometown library in Saratoga Springs.

Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938) was a novelist, short story writer, and influential figure in the literary canon of the Southern Renaissance. He wrote numerous novels, story collections, and plays, including Look Homeward, Angel; Of Time and the River; From Death to Morning; The Web and the Rock; You Can’t Go Home Again; and Only the Dead Know Brooklyn. Wolfe’s short fiction appeared in Scribner’s Magazine, Virginia Quarterly Review, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic, among other publications. A staged adaptation of Look Homeward, Angel appeared on Broadway in 1958, earning six Tony nominations and winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.