Jillian Lauren, a regular storyteller with The Moth, is the bestselling author of the memoir, Some Girls: My Life in a Harem, and the novel, Pretty.  She is not your typical mom. In Everything You Ever Wanted, she recounts her journey of starting a family after a radically untraditional beginning.

Actress and activist Maria Bello made waves with her essay, Coming Out as a Modern Family, in the New York Times popular “Modern Love” column, in which she recalled telling her son that she had fallen in love with her best friend, a woman—and her relief at his easy and immediate acceptance with the phrase “Whatever Mom, love is love.”

Also known as BEK, Bruce Eric Kaplan’s single-panel cartoons frequently appear in The New Yorker. Kaplan is also a screenwriter and producer, and has worked on Seinfeld and HBO’s Six Feet Under and Girls. In his memoir, I Was a Child, he examines his childhood in suburban New Jersey, detailing the small moments we all similarly carry into adulthood.

2015 marks 100 years since the Armenian Genocide.  Eric Bogosian — actor, playwright, and novelist of Armenian descent — crafts a masterful account of the conspiracy of assassins that hunted down and killed the perpetrators of the massacre. 

Greg Iles’ upcoming The Bone Tree is the second in his southern gothic trilogy featuring former prosecutor Penn Cage.  Natchez Burning, the first volume debuted at #2 on The New York Times bestseller list.  His first novel, Spandau Phoenix, was the first of thirteen New York Times bestsellers, and his trilogy continues the story of Penn Cage, protagonist of The Quiet Game, Turning Angel, and The Devil’s Punchbowl. Iles’s novels have been made into films and published in more than thirty-five countries.

Since striking out on his own from Thomas Keller’s acclaimed French Laundry in 2010, Corey Lee has crafted a unique, James Beard Award‐winning cuisine that seamlessly blends his South Korean heritage with his upbringing in the United States. Benu has gone on to receive three Michelin stars, four stars from The San Francisco Chronicle, and the AAA Five Diamond Award. 

Jon Cryer is an Emmy-winning actor, screenwriter, film director, and film producer, best known for his work in John Hughes’s Pretty in Pink and as Alan Harper on CBS’s Two and a Half Men. In his memoir, he shares his behind-the-scenes stories in a warmly endearing, sharply observed, and frankly funny look at life in Hollywood.

The Harder They Come is a powerful, gripping novel that explores the roots of violence and anti-authoritarianism inherent in the American character. T.C. Boyle’s stories have won accolades for their irony and black humor, for their verbal pyrotechnics, for their fascination with everything bizarre and queasy, and for the razor-sharp way in which they dissect America’s obsession with image and materialism.

Gretchen Rubin is a thought-provoking and influential writer on the linked subjects of habits, happiness, and human nature. She’s the author of several books, including the New York Times bestsellers, Happier at Home and The Happiness Project.  In her upcoming book, Better Than Before, Gretchen Rubin  tackles the critical question: How do we change? Her answer: through habits.

Kim Gordon started out as a visual artist, rose to prominence as the bassist, guitarist, and vocalist of alternative rock band Sonic Youth.  In her memoir, Girl in a Band, she tells her story — of life as an artist, of music, marriage, motherhood, independence, and as one of the first women of rock and roll.