Sep 10, 2024
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc is the daughter of a union organizer and a bookkeeper. She is an independent journalist who is best known for her 2003 nonfiction book Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx, which chronicles the struggles of two young women as they deal with love, growing families, poverty, and prison time. A contributor to The New York Times Magazine and other publications, she has also been the recipient of numerous awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship, a Bunting Fellowship from Radcliffe, and several MacDowell Colony residencies. She lives in Manhattan.
Aug 29, 2024
Moon Unit Zappa was born in 1967 to legendary musician Frank Vincent Zappa and his second wife, Gail Zappa. At the age of fourteen, Moon Zappa appeared in Frank Zappa’s career defining music video, “Valley Girl,” which later helped jump-start Moon’s own career. Since then, Moon has worked as an actress, writer, comedian, artist, businesswoman, and podcaster. She lives in California.
Aug 28, 2024
Melissa Newman is a vocalist, teacher, writer and artist who works primarily in porcelain and stoneware. She has shown work in galleries around the Northeast. After enjoying a lucrative jingle career she continues to perform frequently with her jazz trio. Melissa spent almost 20 years volunteering and working with the inspiring women at Bedford Hills correctional facility, teaching visual and performing arts there and in other communities. She recently co-edited and designed a coffee table book about her parents, Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, Head Over Heels, a Love Affair in Words and Pictures published by Little Brown.
Jul 6, 2024
Sunil Amrith is the Renu and Anand Dhawan Professor of History at Yale University and professor at the Yale School of the Environment. He is the author of four books, including his most recent, Burning Earth and is the recipient of multiple awards, including a MacArthur “genius” fellowship. Amrith was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and grew up in Singapore, where his parents moved when he was a baby. Growing up at a crossroads of trade and migration left him with a deep interest in how cultures meet and mix. He currently lives in Hamden, Connecticut with his wife, Ruth Coffey, and their two children. When Sunil is not teaching or writing, his great love is jazz.
https://www.sunilamrithauthor.com
Jul 6, 2024
Emmeline Clein is the author of the new acclaimed memoir Dead Weight. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Yale Review, The Nation, Smithsonian, Berlin Quarterly, VICE, BuzzFeed, Catapult and Antigravity, among other publications. Her chapbook Toxic was published by Choo Choo Press in 2022. She received her MFA from Columbia University’s School of the Arts; she lives in New York.
