John McWhorter teaches linguistics, music history, philosophy and American Studies at Columbia University. He is the author of The Power of Babel, Doing Our Own Thing, Our Magnificent Bastard Tounge, What Language Is, and the upcoming Words On The Move, and his academic specialty is language change and contact. His academic books on language include Defining Creole and Language Interrupted. He also writes on race as well as language for Time, CNN, the Wall Street Journal and the Daily Beast, and a monthly column on language for The Atlantic. McWhorter has published four audiovisual courses with the Teaching Company and has appeared often on National Public Radio (and twice at TED).

Mark Z. Danielewski was born in New York City and lives in Los Angeles. He is the author of House of Leaves, The Whalestoe Letters, Only Revolutions, The Fifty Year Sword, and The Familiar.

Howard A. Rodman wrote Savage Grace starring Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne, nominated for Best Screenplay at the 2009 Spirit Awards, and August, starring Josh Hartnett and David Bowie. He also wrote Joe Gould’s Secret, based on the memoir by famed New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell. He is the author of the novel, Destiny Express, set in the pre-war German filmmaking community. He is the president of the Writers Guild of America, West; a professor of screenwriting at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts; an Artistic Director of the Sundance Screenwriting Labs; and a member of the National Film Preservation Board. In 2013, in recognition of his contributions, he was named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France.

Geoff Dyer is the author of four novels, a critical study of John Berger, and a collection of essays titled Otherwise Known as the Human Condition. Hi has authored six highly original nonfiction books, including the recent Zona and But Beautiful, awarded the Somerset Maugham Prize, and Out of Sheer Rage, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.

Howard A. Rodman is a professor of screenwriting at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, Vice President of the Writers Guild of America, West, and has served as Artistic Director of the Sundance Screenwriting Labs. He wrote the screenplays for the films Savage Grace, August, and Joe Gould’s Secret. Rodman is on the executive committee of the Writers Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and is a Fellow of the Los Angeles Institute of the Humanities.

Alan Mandell, a Beckett scholar, has had a distinguished 75-year acting career and is an accomplished voice-over actor. He is a founding member of the famed San Francisco Actor’s Workshop and co-founder of the San Quentin Drama Workshop, which started in 1957 with a performance of Waiting for Godot inside the prison. Mandell toured Europe with original productions of Godot and Endgame directed by Beckett and has appeared on Broadway. Most recently, he appeared in Godot at the Mark Taper Forum in 2012. His films include The Marrying Man, Midnight Witness, John Cameron Mitchell’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shortbus, and the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man.

Jeannette Seaver was born in Paris and began her career as a concert violinist. She met her future husband, Richard Seaver, in Paris when he was running the influential literary magazine Merlin. Together they formed Seaver Books at Viking Press and later, Arcade Publishing, where for over twenty years, they discovered new literary voices from other cultures, including Natalia Ginzburg, Ismail Kadare, Andrei Makine, and two Nobel Laureates-Octavio Paz and Mo Yan. In 2012, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, decorated Jeannette with the medal of Chevalier dans l'Ordre de la Legion d'Honneur. Following Richard Seaver's death, Arcade Publishing closed. In 2005, Arcade's backlist was acquired by Skyhorse Publishing, where Jeannette currently serves as Editor of Arcade Publishing, at Skyhorse. Jeannette is also the author of four cookbooks illustrated by her daughter, Nathalie Seaver.

Howard A. Rodman is a professor of screenwriting at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, Vice President of the Writers Guild of America, West, and has served as Artistic Director of the Sundance Screenwriting Labs. He wrote Savage Grace, August, and Joe Gould’s Secret. Rodman is on the executive committee of the Writers Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and is a Fellow of the Los Angeles Institute of the Humanities.

Tom Wolfe is the author of more than a dozen books, among them The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, The Bonfire of the Vanities, A Man in Full, and I Am Charlotte Simmons. A native of Richmond, Virginia, he earned his B.A. at Washington and Lee University and a Ph.D. in American studies at Yale. He received the National Book Foundation’s 2010 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in New York City.

Howard A. Rodman is a professor of screenwriting at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, Vice President of the Writers Guild of America, West, and has served as Artistic Director of the Sundance Screenwriting Labs. He wrote Savage Grace, August, and Joe Gould’s Secret. Rodman is on the executive committee of the Writers Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and is a Fellow of the Los Angeles Institute of the Humanities.

Tom Wolfe’s words are performed by René Auberjonois, the esteemed Tony-winning actor whose career has spanned film, television, Broadway, and regional stages, as well as many audio recordings and broadcasts. Audiences best know him from his years on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Boston Legal, and innumerable film and television appearances.