Roxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women, and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She has several books forthcoming and is at work on television and film projects. Gay also has a newsletter, The Audacity, and a podcast, The Roxane Gay Agenda.

Marin Ireland is a Theatre World and Obie Award winner and has been nominated for multiple Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critic, and Broadway League awards. She was also nominated for a Tony for Neil LaBute’s Reasons to Be Pretty. Her film credits include Glass Chin, for which she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, Hell or High Water, The Irishman, The Man in the Woods, The Dark and the Wicked, Light from Light, The Empty Man, and 28 Hotel Rooms. On television, Ireland has been featured on Sneaky Pete, Y: The Last Man, The Umbrella Academy, Girls, Master of Sex, and Homeland.

Andrea Martin is a two-time Tony Award winner for her performances in the musicals My Favorite Year and Pippin, and a two-time Emmy Award winner for her work on SCTV. Additional Broadway credits include Oklahoma!, Candide, Young Frankenstein, Act One, Exit the King, My Favorite Year, and Noises Off. On film, Martin has appeared in Diane, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 1 and 2, Night at the Museum 3, Breaking Upwards, Wag the Dog, and All Over the Guy, among others. Her television credits include 30 Rock, Sesame Street, Will and Grace, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, 30 Rock, Modern Family, Hairspray Live!, Difficult People, Great News, Elena of Avalor, The Good Fight, Evil, Harlem, and Only Murders in the Building. Martin is the creator of the one-woman show Nude Nude Totally Nude and the author of the memoir Lady Parts.

Liev Schreiber is best known for Showtime’s Ray Donovan, for which he earned five Golden Globe nominations and three Emmy nominations. His screen credits include the Scream trilogy, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Manchurian Candidate, Spotlight, Isle of Dogs, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The French Dispatch, Across the River and Into the Trees, Ray Donovan: The Movie, and A Small Light. His stage credits include Glengarry Glen Ross, for which he won a Tony Award, A View from the Bridge, (Drama Desk Award), Talk Radio, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Cymbeline, (Obie Award), Hamlet, Henry V, and Macbeth. Schreiber can currently be seen in Asteroid City and the forthcoming Broadway revival of Doubt.

Michael Stuhlbarg’s Broadway credits include The Pillowman, for both of which he received a Drama Desk Award and a Tony nomination, The Invention of Love, Cabaret, Taking Sides, and Saint Joan. Off-Broadway, he was honored with an Obie Award for his performance in The Voysey Inheritance and has appeared in 11 plays with the Public Theater/NY Shakespeare Festival, including the title roles in Richard II, Hamlet, and Tim Blake Nelson’s Socrates. His television and film credits include A Serious Man, Call Me by Your Name, The Shape of Water, The Post, Bones and All, Shirley, Hugo, Men in Black 3, Lincoln, Blue Jasmine, Steve Jobs, Trumbo, Arrival, Pawn Sacrifice, Miles Ahead, and Doctor Strange 1 & 2. His television credits include Dopesick and The Looming Tower, for both of which he received Emmy nominations, Your Honor, The Staircase, Fargo, Boardwalk Empire, Traitors, and Transparent. Stuhlbarg can be seen in the forthcoming film The Instigators.

Pauletta Pearson Washington can currently be seen in the Kerry Washington–produced legal drama Reasonable Doubt on Hulu. She previously appeared in the anthology film Tell It Like a Woman, National Geographic’s Genius: Aretha, and the second season of Spike Lee’s Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It. Additional film credits include Steps, The Real MVP: The Wanda Durant Story, The Watsons Go to Birmingham, Beloved, Purlie, and Wilma. She was also a featured vocalist on the soundtrack for Philadelphia and a featured pianist on the soundtrack for Antwone Fisher. Washington has appeared on Broadway in Jesus Christ Superstar, Sophisticated Ladies, Shakespeare’s Cabaret, The All Night Strut!, and as an understudy to Lynne Thigpen in Tintypes. Her off-Broadway credits include Love, Loss, and What I Wore; Desperate Writers at the Union Square Theater; Soul Possessed at The Kennedy Center; Spiritual, A Christmas Show at Lincoln Center, A Night of Inspiration at Carnegie Hall; Two Trains Running with True Colors Theater Company; and The Old Settler at the Billie Holiday Theater. Washington was part of the original cast and touring company of Jerry’s Girls, and she has also created and performed her own one-woman show for both domestic and international audiences.

Lewis Carroll (1832 – 1898) was an English author, mathematician, logician, and photographer. His given name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, but he used Lewis Carroll as a pen name. His family had strong ties to the Anglican Church and he studied and taught mathematics at Christ Church. He’s best known for his novels and poetry, which include such works as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

Langston Hughes (1902 – 1967) wrote nearly fifty books of poetry, prose, and drama and is particularly known for his portrayals of the Black American experience from the twenties through the sixties. His writing engages with jazz and blues and he shaped the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Among his countless notable works are the poetry collections The Weary Blues and Montage of a Dream Deferred; the “Simple” books of prose; his acclaimed autobiography The Big Sea, and the play Mule Bone, co-authored with Zora Neale Hurston. His residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem is a New York City Preservation Commission landmark.

Denis Johnson (1949 – 2017) is the author of Jesus’ Son, Train Dreams, a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize, and several novels including Tree of Smoke, the 2007 National Book Award winner and a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. His last short story collection, The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, was published by Random House in January 2018 and was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. He won the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction in 2017.

Richard Matheson (1926 – 2013) is the author of many classic novels and short stories. He wrote in a variety of genres including terror, fantasy, horror, paranormal, suspense, science fiction, and western. In addition to books, he wrote prolifically for television (including The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, and Star Trek) and numerous feature films. Many of Matheson’s novels and stories have been made into movies, including I Am Legend, Somewhere in Time, and Shrinking Man. His many awards include the World Fantasy and Bram Stoker Awards for Lifetime Achievement, the Hugo Award, Edgar Award, Spur Award for Best Western Novel, Writer’s Guild awards, and in 2010 he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

Sam Messer has been exhibiting his work since 1983. His work can be found in such collections as the Metropolitan Museum, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Museum of Art Houston. A version of Denis the Pirate was shown in 2017 at the Wadsworth Atheneum as Matrix 178, including paintings and sculptures alongside the film. He is the recipient of many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Pollock-Krasner Award. Messer is a Professor Emeritus at Yale University and was the Associate Dean of the Yale School of Art and the Director of The Yale Norfolk Summer School. Messer has collaborated with the writers Denis Johnson, Paul Auster, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Sharon Olds.

Mary Orr (1910 – 2006) was an actress and author, best known for her short story “The Wisdom of Eve,” which was adapted into the Academy Award–winning film All About Eve. She frequently collaborated with her husband, Reginald Denham, and wrote five books and 40 television scripts. She and Denham also collaborated on the plays Wallflower, Round Trip, Dark Hammock, and Be Your Age.