Word Power

Deborah S. Craig’s recent comedy turns include guest-starring on the hit Comedy Central series Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens and as a series regular on the pilot The Emperor of Malibu from acclaimed author Kevin Kwan, David Sangalli, Warner Brothers, and CBS opposite Ken Jeong. On Broadway she originated the role of Marcy Park in the Tony Award-winning musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, for which she received critical acclaim, a Drama Desk Award, and the distinction of creating the first Korean American character on Broadway. On television, Miss Craig is known for her roles on The Blacklist, Transparent, Hart of Dixie, and Six Degrees. She has guest starred on the recently released Platonic from writer/director Erin C. Buckley, Better Things, Workaholics, Bull, Instinct, Elementary, Son of Zorn, Almost There, and Dog With a Blog. Her film work includes A Nice Girl Like You; Poor Greg Drowning; The Outfield; Kiss Me, Kill Me; Ghost Town; and I See You and You See Me. Upcoming projects include the series Brothers in Law. Miss Craig is an avid reader, yogi, and transracial adoptee.

Dylan Marron is an IFP Gotham Award & Drama Desk-nominated writer, performer, and video maker. He is the voice of Carlos on the hit podcast Welcome to Night Vale, an alum of the New York Neo Futurists, and the creator of Every Single Word, a video series that edits down popular films to only feature the words spoken by people of color. As a writer and correspondent at Seriously.tv Marron created, hosted, and produced Sitting in Bathrooms with Trans People, Shutting Down Bullsh*t, and the Unboxing series. He hosts and produces Conversations with People Who Hate Me, which was selected as a Podcast Pick by USA Today and The Guardian, named "the timeliest podcast" by FastCompany, and won a Webby Award. Marron recently gave a TED Talk and is currently writing Snowflake, which will be published in 2022.

Denis O’Hare’s screen credits include Garden State, A Mighty Heart, Michael Clayton, Milk, The Comedians, Duplicity, The Good Wife, True Blood, American Horror Story, HBO’s The Normal Heart, Dallas Buyers Club, This Is Us, Big Little Lies, Lizzie, The Goldfinch, American Gods, Dr. Seuss' the Grinch Musical, The Postcard Killings, and The Nevers. He won a Tony Award for his performance in Take Me Out and a Drama Desk Award for his role in Sweet Charity. He is the co-writer, with Lisa Peterson, and star of An Iliad, which was performed at the New York Theatre Workshop and The Broad Stage in Santa Monica. He and Peterson also co-authored a play about the bible, The Good Book, which premiered at the Court Theatre in Chicago and subsequently had a hit run at Berkeley Rep. O’Hare’s upcoming projects includeGame of Power, Butterfly in the Typewriter, and Infinite Storm with Naomi Watts.

Ian McEwan’s works have earned him worldwide critical acclaim. He won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1976 for his first collection of short stories First Love, Last Rites; the Whitbread Novel Award and the Prix Fémina Etranger for The Child in Time; and Germany's Shakespeare Prize in 1999. He has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction numerous times, winning the award for Amsterdam in 1998. His novel Atonement was made into an Oscar-winning film. McEwan was awarded the Bodleian Meda and a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Toni Morrison (1931 - 2019) was the celebrated author of the novels The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, Beloved, Jazz, Home, and God Help the Child, among others. Song of Solomon was the winner of the 1978 National Book Critics’ Circle Award. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for Beloved, which was subsequently adapted into a film. Morrison authored and edited several nonfiction books, including Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination; Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality; Birth of a Nation'hood: Gaze, Script, and Spectacle in the O.J. Simpson Case; Remember: The Journey to School Integration; and Burn This Book: Notes on Literature and Engagement. She is the subject of the documentary Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am. Morrison’s papers are part of the permanent library collections of Princeton University. Among Morrison’s numerous honors are the 1996 National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the Norman Mailer Prize for Lifetime Achievement, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction, the Edward MacDowell Medal, and several honorary doctorates. In 1994, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Joe Morton is an Emmy Award-winning film, television, and stage veteran, best known as Rowan/Eli Pope in Shonda Rhimes' groundbreaking series Scandal. He most recently starred as Reverend Arthur Finer on the series God Friended Me and is featured on Netflix’s The Politician. He is known for his iconic roles in films The Brother from Another Planet, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Justice League, and Speed, among many others. He made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning musical Hair, followed by a starring role in Raisin, for which he garnered a Tony nomination and Theatre World Award. In 2016, Morton returned to his theater roots portraying the iconic comedian Dick Gregory in the one-man show Turn Me Loose off-Broadway and was honored with the NAACP Theatre Lifetime Achievement Award. He reprised his role in Turn Me Loose at The Wallis-Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in fall 2017. Morton’s forthcoming projects include Zach Snyder’s Justice League on HBO.

Souvankham Thammavongsa is the author of four acclaimed poetry books and the short story collection How to Pronounce Knife, winner of the 2020 Scotiabank Giller prize, a New York Times Editors' Choice, and a TIME 100 Must-Read Book of 2020. She has been honored with an O. Henry Award and appeared in Harper's Magazine,The Paris Review, The Atlantic, Granta, NOON, Journey Prize Stories 2016, Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018, O. Henry Prize Stories 2019, and Best Canadian Stories 2020. Thammavongsa was born in the Lao refugee camp in Nong Khai, Thailand, and was raised and educated in Toronto, where she now lives.