Lesley Nneka Arimah was born in the UK and grew up in Nigeria and the United States. Her work has received grants and awards from Commonwealth Writers, the Elizabeth George Foundation, The MacDowell Colony, Breadloaf and others. She was selected for the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 and is the recipient of an O'Henry Award. Her debut collection, What it Means When a Man Falls from the Sky, won the Kirkus Prize and the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, and was a finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Leonard Prize.
Nate Corddry is an actor, comedian, and writer who has recently been featured on the television series Fosse/Verdon, Mindhunter, For All Mankind, and Perry Mason. Additional film and television credits include Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip; United States of Tara; Harry’s Law; Childrens Hospital; TRON: Uprising; St. Vincent; The Heat; Mom; The Hindenburg Explodes!; The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; The Circle; New Girl; Ghostbusters; Tammy’s Tiny Tea Time; Standing Up, Falling Down; and as a correspondent on The Daily Show.
Crystal Dickinson won the Theatre World Award for her Broadway debut in the 2012 production of Clybourne Park. She subsequently appeared in You Can’t Take It With You on Broadway in 2014, A Raisin in the Sun at the Two River Theater, and The Low Road at the Public Theater. Her film and television credits include I Origins, The Good Wife, Feed the Beast, New Amsterdam, and recurring roles on The Chi and ABC’s For Life. Dickinson has taught at Stella Adler Studio, Spelman College, Pace University, Princeton University, the Juilliard School, NYU, and both of her alma maters, University of Illinois and Seton Hall. Currently, Dickinson is working with The Commissary, a group of 40 theater artists who come together to reinvestigate the words of trailblazing artists and activists who survived and created in times of revolution in our country. Visit VinyardTheater.org.
Robert Sean Leonard won the Tony Award for his performance in The Invention of Love and earned nominations for his work in Long Day’s Journey Into Night and Candida. He has also appeared on Broadway in The Speed of Darkness, Arcadia, The Iceman Cometh, The Music Man, Sunday in the Park with George, among other roles both on and Off-Broadway. His film credits include Dead Poets Society, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, Swing Kids, Much Ado About Nothing, The Age of Innocence, In the Gloaming, The Last Days of Disco, The Killer, Tape, and A Painted House. His television credits include featured roles on House, Falling Skies, and The Hot Zone, among others.
Peter Orner is the author of several works of fiction, including The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo, Love and Shame and Love, Esther Stories, Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge, and most recently, Maggie Brown & Others as well as the memoir Am I Alone Here?, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is a two-time Pushcart Prize winner and a recipient of the Guggenheim fellowship.
Maulik Pancholy is an actor, author, and activist. He is best known for his television roles on 30 Rock, Weeds, Whitney, The Good Fight, and for lending his voice to the long-running animated series Phineas & Ferb and Sanjay & Craig. On stage, he starred on Broadway in Terrence McNally’s It's Only a Play, in The New Group’s production of Good for Otto, Bess Wohl’s Grand Horizons at the Helen Hayes Theatre, and most recently The George Street Playhouse virtual production of Becky Mode’s Fully Committed. Pancholy’s debut novel, The Best at It, was named a 2020 Stonewall Honor Book, a Junior Library Guild Selection, and received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and the American Library Association’s Booklist. Pancholy is the co-founder of the anti-bullying organization ActToChange.org.
Lynn Sloan is a writer and a photographer. She is the author of the short story collection This Far Isn’t Far Enough. Her short fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Shenandoah, and American Literary Review, among other journals, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She is the author of the novel Principles Of Navigation, which was chosen as one of Chicago Book Review Best Books of 2015. Her fine-art photographs have been exhibited nationally and internationally. For many years she taught photography at Columbia College Chicago, where she founded the journal Occasional Readings in Photography and contributed to Afterimage,Art Week, and Exposure.
