Terry McMillan is the New York Times bestselling author of I Almost Forgot About You, Waiting to Exhale, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, A Day Late and a Dollar Short, The Interruption of Everything, and the editor of Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction. Four of Ms. McMillan’s novels have been made into movies: Waiting to Exhale; How Stella Got Her Groove Back; Disappearing Acts; and A Day Late and a Dollar Short. 

Pauline Brown is a longtime leader in the luxury goods sector and former Chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton North America. In her new book, she reinvents the art and science of brand-building under the rubric of Aesthetic Intelligence. She has acquired, built, and led global luxury brands for more than 25 years. She is a pioneer in identifying the role of aesthetics in business, and shows executives, entrepreneurs, and other professionals how to harness the power of the senses to create products, services, and experiences that stand out, resonate with their customers, and create long-term value for their businesses. The power is rooted in Aesthetic Intelligence—or “the other AI,” as Brown refers to it.

Julia Alvarez  the internationally bestselling author of “In the Time of the Butterflies” and “How the García Girls Lost Their Accents.” She is the author of six novels, three books of nonfiction, three collections of poetry, and eleven books for children and young adults. Her work has garnered wide recognition, including a Latina Leader Award in Literature from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature, the Woman of the Year by Latina magazine. “In the Time of the Butterflies” was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts for its national Big Read program, and in 2013 President Obama awarded Alvarez the National Medal of Arts in recognition of her extraordinary storytelling.

Alan Zweibel is an original Saturday Night Live writer, who has won multiple Emmy and Writers Guild Awards for his work in television, which also includes It’s Garry Shandling’s Show (which he co-created and produced), The Late Show With David Letterman and Curb Your Enthusiasm. His theatrical contributions include his collaboration with Billy Crystal on the Tony Award winning play 700 Sundays, Martin Short’s Broadway hit Fame Becomes Me and six off-Broadway plays including Bunny Bunny – Gilda Radner: A Sort of Romantic Comedy, which he adapted from his bestselling book. Alan has written eleven books including the 2006 Thurber Prize winning novel The Other Shulman, the popular children’s book Our Tree Named Steve, the novel Lunatics that he co-wrote with Dave Barry and a parody of the Haggadah titled For This We Left Egypt? that he wrote with Dave Barry and Adam Mansbach. 

Nancy Silverton is the co-owner of Osteria Mozza, Pizzeria Mozza, Chi Spacca, and Mozza2Go, in Los Angeles, Singapore, and Newport Beach, California. She is the founder of the La Brea Bakery and the only chef ever to be awarded both the Outstanding Chef and Outstanding Pastry Chef awards from the James Beard Foundation. She was featured in Chef’s Table on Netflix, and was chosen by both Fortune and Food & Wine magazines as one of the “Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink.”

Stephanie Danler is the author of the bestselling novel, Sweetbitter, set in the restaurant and food industry. Sweetbitter was turned into a series on Starz.  She appeared at Live Talks Los Angeles in conversation with Teri Hatcher when Sweetbitter was published. Stray is Danler’s memoir of growing up in a family shattered by lies and addiction, and of one woman’s attempts to find a life beyond the limits of her past. It is a moving, sometimes devastating, brilliantly written and ultimately inspiring exploration of the landscapes of damage and survival.

Tori Amos is a Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum singer-songwriter, pianist, composer, and, with Ann Powers, the New York Times bestselling author of Tori Amos: Piece by Piece. She has released fifteen studio albums, including her latest, Native Invader, in 2017. Her book “Resistance: A Songwriter’s Story of Hope, Change, and Courage,” is a timely and passionate call to action for engaging with our current political moment and handling it with intelligence, grace, and integrity.

“Memoirs and Misinformation” is a fearless semi-autobiographical novel, a deconstruction of persona. In it, Jim Carrey and Dana Vachon have fashioned a story about acting, Hollywood, agents, celebrity, privilege, friendship, romance, addiction to relevance, fear of personal erasure, our “one big soul,” Canada, and a cataclysmic ending of the world–apocalypses within and without.

Lisa Napoli’s “Up All Night” is an entertaining inside look at the founding of the upstart network that set out to change the way news was delivered and consumed. Mixing media history, a business adventure story, and great characters, “Up All Night” tells the story of a network that succeeded beyond even the wildest imaginings of its charismatic and uncontrollable founder, and paved the way for the world we live in today.

Over the past 35 years, Robbie Conal has made more than 100 street posters — from oil portraits — satirizing politicians and bureaucrats. He has also taken on censorship, war, social injustice, and environmental issues. Conal recently began applying his wit on celebratory portraits of his personal heroes Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Greta Thunberg, Ruth Bader-Ginsburg, and Maya Angelou. “Robbie Conal: Streetwise 35 Years of Politically Charged Guerrilla Art” features every image in Robbie Conal’s storied poster campaigns — gnarled, gut retching, and emotionally laden —  and is the definitive history of  “America’s foremost street artist” (Washington Post) with a foreword by Shepard Fairey.

Charlie Kaufman is the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of films including Anomalisa; Synechdoche, New York; Adaptation; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; and Being John Malkovich. He won an Oscar for his work on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and has been nominated three additional times. He is also a three-time BAFTA winner for screenwriting, and he has been nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, among many other film honors. “Antkind” is his bold and boundlessly original debut novel.