Rosa Lowinger is a Cuban-born American writer and art conservator. The award-winning author of Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of the Legendary Cuban Nightclub (Harcourt, 2005) and Promising Paradise: Cuban Allure American Seduction (Wolfsonian Museum, 2016), she is the founder and current Vice-President of RLA Conservation, LLC, one of the U.S.’s largest woman-owned art and architectural conservation firms. A Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation, the Association for Preservation Technology, and the American Academy in Rome, Rosa regularly writes about conservation, historic preservation, the visual arts, and Cuba for popular and academic media.

Carolina A. Miranda is a Los Angeles Times columnist focused on art and design, who also makes regular forays into other areas of culture, including performance, books, and digital life. In her years at The Times, she has covered how communities are rethinking the nature of monuments, how architecture is shifting to accommodate a denser Los Angeles, the significance of political graphics in the post-Roe world and how narco-culture has permeated TV and the internet. She was a winner of the 2017 Rabkin Prize in Visual Arts Journalism and the 2021 Sigma Delta Chi Award presented by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Emily St. John Mandel’s five previous novels include The Glass Hotel, which has been translated into twenty-five languages, and Station Eleven, which was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, was the basis of a limited series on HBO Max and has been translated into thirty-seven languages. She lives in New York City and Los Angeles.

Charles Yu is the author of four books, including his latest, Interior Chinatown, which won the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction, was shortlisted for the Le Prix Médicis étranger and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. He has received the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award, been nominated for two Writers Guild of America awards for his work on the HBO series Westworld, and has also written for shows on FX, AMC, Facebook Watch, and Adult Swim. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in a number of publications, including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Wired, Time and Ploughshares.

Together with TaiwaneseAmerican.org, he has also sponsored the Betty L. and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prizes for Students. You can find him on Twitter @charles_yu.

Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai Born and raised in Việt Nam, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is the author of The Mountains Sing, runner-up for the 2021 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, winner of the 2020 Book Browse Best Debut Award, the 2021 International Book Awards, the 2021 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, and the 2020 Lannan Literary Award Fellowship for Fiction. She has published twelve books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction and has received some of the top literary prizes in Việt Nam. Her writing has been translated into twenty languages and has appeared in major publications, including the New York Times. She has a Ph.D. in creative writing from Lancaster University. She is an advocate for the rights of disadvantaged groups in Việt Nam and has founded several scholarship programs, and she was named by Forbes Vietnam as one of the twenty inspiring women of 2021. For more information, visit: www.nguyenphanquemai.com

Kenneth Nguyen is the host of The Vietnamese podcast and has recorded over 250 podcasts since he began in 2020. Previously, Kenneth held positions in the film industry before venturing out to develop film projects. A founding partner of Wave Releasing and EAST Films, Kenneth executive produced Saigon Electric, including worked on Owl and the Sparrow, De Mai Tinh, and Six Inch Heels. Kenneth Nguyen served honorably as a former U.S. Marine (1993-97) and holds a B. A degree from the University of Southern California.

Quyen Ngo is an actor, organizer, and trainer based in Los Angeles. She is the narrator of Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s Dust Child, as well as her debut novel, The Mountains Sing, which was a Finalist of the Audie 2021 Best Audiobook of the Year Award. She began her acting journey in middle school and continued training during her time at Brown University, where she also ventured into radio and voice acting. She is a translator of Vietnamese poetry and prose and believes both narration and translation work are sacred arts.

Dr. Jason R. Nguyen is a celebrated musician of Vietnamese traditional music. He holds a dual doctorate in Ethnomusicology and Communication & Culture from Indiana University, Bloomington. He has collaborated with Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai and Quyên Ngô in many performances to uplift Vietnamese literature. Trained as one of the top virtuosos of the single-string đàn bầu in the world, Jason is committed to using intergenerational dialogue to heal collective trauma. Forging a unique path as an artist and scholar, Jason has adapted all he has learned to contemporary contexts and communities while respecting the deep knowledge and experience of his hereditary, spiritual, and intellectual ancestors. For more information: soulgook.com

Kristina Wong (she/ her) is a performance artist, comedian, writer, and elected representative in Koreatown Los Angeles who has been presented internationally across North America, the UK, Hong Kong, and Africa. Kristina founded Auntie Sewing Squad, a national network of volunteers sewing masks for vulnerable communities. They have a book from the University of California Press. Her show Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord is a New York Times Critics Pick that premiered off-Broadway at New York Theater Workshop. It’s the finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Drama and winner of the Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for best Solo Performance.

Jessica Arana is a Xicana/American/Mexican designer, educator, and artist. Her work has appeared in Design Observer, Eye on Design, and a co-curated Google Arts & Culture exhibition. As a Super Auntie, Jessica prioritized Black and Brown communities by thoughtfully developing relationships with over 70 organizations and activists to reach farm workers, formerly incarcerated women, Black community centers, BLM, low-income laborers, migrants, and asylum seekers. She is proud of developing pathways to get masks and donated goods to folks on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border and rapidly coordinating protective KN95 masks to farm workers during the 2020 and 2021 wildfires.

Māhealani Flournoy is a professional chef based in Pasadena, California. Her biggest accomplishment is as a special-needs mom and rare disease advocate for her son Aiden, who was diagnosed at birth with Aicardi-Goutières Syndrome. She’s been a longtime member of Hālau Hula Moani’a’ala Anuhea in Monterey Park and perpetuates her Hawai’ian culture through dance, chant, and aloha. She is the Culinary Director of Foraging and Mushroom Hunting Women of Socal and can often be found hiking and eating the weeds in the local San Gabriel Mountains.

Laura Karlin is the founder and Artistic Director of Invertigo Dance Theatre. She founded Invertigo Dance Theatre in 2007, and it is a vibrant dance institution in Los Angeles. She choreographs for the company and works to make Invertigo a lively presence in LA through lush performance, transformative engagement programming, and innovative collaboration. Through Invertigo, she co-founded the Dancing Through Parkinson’s program. Laura is a Super Auntie in the Auntie Sewing Squad, a Reproductive Justice activist, a gardener, a mama, an herbalist, and a fan of popsicle stick jokes. She wants to talk to you about dance, pies, gardens, social justice, and other such stardust.

George Saunders is the author of nine books, including the novel Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Man Booker Prize, the story collections Pastoralia and Tenth of December, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He has received fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 2006 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2013 he was awarded the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction and was included in Time’s list of the one hundred most influential people in the world. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University.

Nick Offerman is the New York Times bestselling author of Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living, Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom With America’s Gutsiest Troublemakers, and Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop, as well as co-author of The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, with his wife, Megan Mullally. Nick and Megan live in Los Angeles, California, with their pups and a fairly decent collection of assorted wood clamps.

Dr. Vivek H. Murthy was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in March 2021 to serve as the 21st Surgeon General of the United States. He previously served as the 19th Surgeon General under President Obama. As the Nation’s Doctor, the Surgeon General’s mission is to help lay the foundation for a healthier country, relying on the best scientific information available to provide clear, consistent, and equitable guidance and resources for the public. As the Vice Admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, Dr. Murthy also commands a uniformed service of over 6,000 dedicated public health officers, serving the most underserved and vulnerable populations. The first Surgeon General of Indian descent, Dr. Murthy was raised in Miami and is a graduate of Harvard, the Yale School of Medicine, and the Yale School of Management. He also recently launched a new podcast, House Calls with Dr. Vivek Murthy, designed around how conversations have the power to be healing. He is the author of Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World. A renowned physician, research scientist, entrepreneur, author, and mango aficionado, he lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, Dr. Alice Chen, and their two children.

Robert D. Putnam is the Malkin Research Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the British Academy, and past president of the American Political Science Association, in 2006, he received the Skytte Prize, the world’s highest accolade for a political scientist. In 2012 Barack Obama awarded Bob the National Humanities Medal, the nation’s highest honor for contributions to the humanities. He has written fifteen books, translated into twenty languages, including Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Italy and Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, both among the most cited (and bestselling) social science works in nearly a century. He has consulted for Presidents Carter, Clinton, Bush 43, and Obama, as well as presidents and prime ministers from the UK, Ireland, and Finland to South Korea and Singapore. His most recent book, The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again (2020), is a widely praised study of broad 20th-century American economic, social, political, and cultural trends.

J. Holtham is a screenwriter, playwright, comic book writer, and blogger. TV: Pitch (Fox), Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger (Freeform), Marvel's Jessica Jones (Netflix), Supergirl (CW), The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu). Theatre: Ensemble Studio Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Second Stage Theater, Bespoke Plays. Essays and Reporting: American Theatre, Thrillist, Slate. Comics: Star Trek: The Mirror War, Marvel Voices: Legacy (2022), Spider-Verse Unlimited. Podcasts: Marvel’s Wastelanders: Hawkeye. On the board of the 24-Hour Plays and Ojai Playwrights Conference. He is a proud product of public education. 

Vivian J.O. Barnes is a writer from Virginia. She is a Playwrights Center Venturous Fellow and a member of the Geffen Playhouse’s 21-22 Writers’ Room. Her plays have been produced at Actors Theatre of Louisville and Steppenwolf Theatre in their digital NOW series. She has developed plays with Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage Theater, Clubbed Thumb, Montana Repertory Theatre, and Ojai Playwrights Conference. In the TV world, she has staffed on shows at Amazon and Peacock. She lives in Los Angeles, next to a giant bougainvillea vine. She is learning how to keep her plants alive.

Inda Craig-Galván is a Los Angeles-based playwright and screenwriter. Plays include A Jumping-Off Point (Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2022), Black Super Hero Magic Mama (Kennedy Center Rosa Parks Award, Kesselring Prize, Blue Ink Prize, Jane Chambers Student Award), and Welcome to Matteson! (Blue Ink Prize, Jeffry Melnick New Play Award, NNPN Showcase 2022). Her plays have been developed at the O'Neill, Ashland New Play Festival, Ojai Playwrights Conference, JAW, OSF, Orlando Shakes, Geffen Writers Room, and a few others that won't fit here. Inda is writing two new plays on commissions with The Old Globe and Round House Theatre. TV credits: Will Trent, Demimonde, Happy Face, How to Get Away With Murder, The Rookie. MFA in Dramatic Writing, University of Southern California.

Dave Harris is a poet and playwright from West Philly. He is the Tow Playwright-in-Residence at Roundabout Theatre Company. His play Tambo & Bones will be produced at Playwrights Horizons and Center Theatre Group, and his play Exception To The Rule will be produced at Roundabout whenever theatre allows. His work has been seen at Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival, Roundabout Underground, Manhattan Theater Club, Center Theatre Group, The Goodman, Victory Gardens, The Kennedy Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Space on Ryder Farm, The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, and Ojai Playwrights Conference amongst others. Honors include: the 2019 Ollie Award, The Lorraine Hansberry Award, and Mark Twain Award from The Kennedy Center, The International Commendation for The Bruntwood Prize, the 2018 Venturous Fellowship from The Lark, and a Cave Canem poetry fellowship, amongst others. His adapted film Summertime had its premiere at Sundance in 2020 and will be distributed in 2021. His first full-length collection of poetry, Patricide, was published in May 2019 from Button Poetry. Dave received his B.A. from Yale University and his MFA from UC San Diego.

Bruce Miller is creator, showrunner, and executive producer of the critically-acclaimed, Emmy, Golden Globe, and Peabody Award-winning series The Handmaid’s Tale, based on Margaret Atwood’s groundbreaking novel. Miller began his writing career on NBC’s long-running hit ER and has been a writer/producer on Syfy’s Eureka and Alphas and the CW’s The 100. Originally from Stamford, Connecticut, Miller attended Brown University and currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife Tracy, with whom he has three children. Lorraine Ali is a television critic of the Los Angeles Times. Previously, she was a senior writer for the Calendar section, where she covered culture at large, entertainment, and American Muslim issues. Ali is an award-winning journalist and Los Angeles native who has written in publications ranging from the New York Times to Rolling Stone and GQ. She was formerly The Times’ music editor and, before that, a senior writer and music critic with Newsweek magazine.

André Gregory has been directing theater in New York for more than half a century. His forty-year collaboration with Wallace Shawn began with his critically acclaimed production of Shawn's Our Late Night, and he has collaborated on film versions of his theater productions with Shawn, Louis Malle, and Jonathan Demme. Gregory, Shawn, and Malle created the now-legendary My Dinner with André. As an actor, Gregory has performed in a dozen films, including The Last Temptation of Christ by Martin Scorsese, and Mosquito Coast by Peter Weir. Gregory is also a writer, a teacher, and a painter—an exhibition of his artwork was staged at Monica King Contemporary in New York City this fall.

Wallace Shawn started writing plays in 1967. His first play to be professionally produced, Our Late Night, was written for André Gregory's company the Manhattan Project. It was directed by Gregory and opened at the Public Theater in 1975. Mr. Shawn's other plays—which include The Fever, The Designated Mourner, and Grasses of a Thousand Colors, among others—have been performed in New York and London. Also with André Gregory, Shawn co-wrote and co-starred in the classic film My Dinner with André, and Mr. Shawn's work as a film actor includes appearances in Manhattan, Radio Days, Clueless, and the Toy Story series. Mr. Shawn's most recent book, Night Thoughts, was just released in paperback.