Authors

ALICE RANDALL is a New York Times bestselling novelist, award-winning songwriter, and educator. She is widely recognized as one of the most significant voices in modern Black fiction and has emerged as an innovative food activist committed to reforms that support healthy bodies and communities. Randall lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she writes country songs and is a professor of African American and diaspora studies, writer-in-residence at Vanderbilt University.

RUTHVIKA RAO was born in Warangal district, Telangana, and grew up in Hyderabad, India. She graduated from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was a Truman Capote Fellow and recipient of the Henfield Prize in fiction. Her short fiction has appeared in The Georgia Review, The Southern Review, New Letters, StoryQuarterly, and elsewhere. The Fertile Earth: A Novel (Flatiron Books) is her debut work of fiction.

An acclaimed playwright, ADAM RAPP was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his play Red Light Winter and a Tony Award finalist for The Sound Inside. He is also a recipient of the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among other honors. In addition to his numerous plays, he is the author of the novels Know Your Beholder and The Year of Endless Sorrows, and several YA novels, including Under the Wolf and Under the Dog, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He has written and produced The L Word, In Treatment, and The Looming Tower for television, and is currently executive producer and showrunner for American Rust: Broken Justice. Born in Chicago and raised in nearby Joliet, Illinois, Rapp now splits his time between New York City and upstate New York.

ELLE REEVE is a CNN correspondent whose work has won numerous awards, including an Emmy and a Peabody. Her writing has appeared in Vice, The New Republic, New York Magazine, Elle, The Atlantic, and The Daily Beast. Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics (Atria Books) is her debut book.

RICHARD V. REEVES is the author of several books, including Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That is a Problem, and What to Do About It. He is also a regular contributor to The New York Times, The Atlantic, National Affairs, and other publications. He is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, focusing on policies related to economic inequality, racial justice, social mobility, and boys and men. In 2023, inspired by his own experiences as a father of three sons and policy expert, Reeves founded the American Institute for Boys and Men (AIBM) to bring awareness to the challenges they face today and to develop evidence-based solutions to overcome them. His most recent book is Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It (Brookings Institution Press).

ALEXANDRA LYTTON REGALADO is the author of Matria (Black Lawrence Press, 2017), which received the St. Lawrence Book Award. She received an MFA in poetry from Florida International University and an MFA in fiction from Pacific University, and today is a co-director of Editorial Kalina and editor of Puntos de fuga/Vanishing Points (Editorial Kalina, 2017), a bilingual anthology of contemporary Salvadoran prose. She lives in Miami and San Salvador, El Salvador.

RAQUEL REICHARD is a journalist, editor, author, producer, and speaker based in Orlando, Florida, who also serves as the deputy director of Somos, Refinery 29’s channel by and for Latines. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Refinery29, Cosmopolitan, Bustle, Well + Good, Teen Vogue, and other major news and lifestyle outlets. Her first book, Self-Care for Latinas, (Adams Media) was published in December 2023. A proud Nuyoflorican, Raquel was born in Far Rockaway in Queens, New York, spent her early childhood in her parents’ homeland of Puerto Rico, and was raised in Orlando.

RUTH REICHL is a the New York Times bestselling author of five memoirs, the novel Delicious!, and the cookbook My Kitchen Year. She was editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine and previously served as restaurant critic for NYT, and food editor and restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times. She has received six James Beard Awards.

JUSTIN A. REYNOLDS' debut YA novel Opposite of Always was an Indies Introduce selection and a School Library Journal Best Book that's been translated into 19 languages; his Early Departures was a Kirkus Reviews Best YA Book of the Year; and his debut middle-grade graphic novel Shock Waves was an indie bestseller. He is a co-founder of the CLE Reads Book Festival, a Cleveland book fair for middle grade and young adult writers. He hangs out in northeast Ohio and is probably somewhere dancing terribly.

MARCELLAS REYNOLDS is an entertainment reporter and celebrity fashion stylist. He is the author of Supreme Models: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Fashion, the first-ever art book devoted to top Black models, and Supreme Actresses: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Hollywood, featuring Academy Award best actress winner Viola Davis on the cover, a foreword by Gabrielle Union, and interviews with Tiffany Haddish, Lupita Nyong'o, Issa Rae, Alexandra Shipp, and Lynn Whitfield, among others. Reynolds is also the executive producer of Supreme Models, the documentary based on his bestselling book, airing on Vogue’s YouTube channel. He regularly appears on the ABC, CBS, CNN, E!, NBC, and the UK’s ITV networks. Reynolds’ latest work is the art book Supreme Sirens: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Music (Abrams Books), which celebrates influential and successful Black female performers.

ALEJANDRO RÍOS Crítico de cine, arte y literatura. Desde 1992 integra el Programa de Autores Iberoamericanos de la Feria del Libro de Miami, para el cual identifica potenciales autores y se responsabiliza con la presentación de algunas de sus sesiones. Escribe columnas semanales en Cubanet, sobre temas culturales. Publicó el libro La mirada indiscreta (Ed. Hypermedia) que se presentó en la Feria del Libro de Miami 2017, donde compila columnas y ensayos. Es el programador de Spotlight on Cuba, del Festival de Cine de Miami, así como de la Serie de Cine Cubano. Es crítico de cine del Canal 41, AmericaTeVe.

SARA DANIELE RIVERA is a Cuban Peruvian American artist, writer, translator, and educator. Her poetry and fiction have been published in literary journals and anthologies such as The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext, Solstice, Waxwing, and elsewhere. She was awarded a 2017 St. Botolph's Emerging Artist Award and won the 2018 Stephen Dunn Prize in Poetry. The Blue Mimes: Poems (Graywolf Press) is her most recent collection. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

PHILOMÉ ROBERT is a Haitian journalist, presenter, and author who has gained recognition for his debut novel, Vagabondages éphémères (Caraibéditions). Born in 1975, Robert studied law and applied linguistics in Haiti before beginning his career in journalism at Radio Vision 2000. After being forced into exile due to political persecution, he settled in France, where he became a presenter for France 24.

ROXANA ROBINSON is the author of 11 books, including seven novels, three collections of short stories, and a biography of Georgia O’Keeffe. Four of her books were selected as New York Times “Notable Books” and two as NYT “Editors’ Choice” picks. Robinson’s fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, The Best American Short Stories, The Southampton Review, Ep!phany, and elsewhere. Her work has been widely anthologized and broadcast on NPR, and her books have been published in England, France, Germany, Holland, and Spain.

MICHAEL ROCH is a French Caribbean author and screenwriter, and a prominent voice in Afrofuturism and speculative fiction. Born in Lyon, France, in 1987, Roch now resides in Martinique, where his writing deeply engages with the cultural and historical intricacies of the Caribbean. He’s the author of the novel Tè Mawon (Volte) and, previously, Moi, Peter Pan, and Le Livre Jaune, works that further demonstrates his ability to weave complex narratives around decolonization, social upheaval, and the search for self in a postcolonial world.

EDEL RODRIGUEZ is a Cuban American artist and author who has exhibited internationally with shows in Los Angeles, Toronto, New York, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Spain. His latest book is The Mango Tree/La mata de mango: A Picture Book (Harry N. Abrams). Rodriguez has received the Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators and was the art director of Time magazine. Books he has illustrated include Song for Jimi: The Story of Guitar Legend Jimi Hendrix by Charles R. Smith Jr., Float Like a Butterfly by Ntozake Shange, Fascinating: The Life of Leonard Nimoy, and Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx by Jonah Winter. His clients include The New York Times, Time, and The New Yorker, among other publications and book publishers. Rodriguez’s artwork is in the collections of various institutions, including the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., as well as in numerous private collections. He lives with his wife and daughter in New Jersey.

ANTONIO ORLANDO RODRÍGUEZ Escritor e investigador literario cubanoamericano. Ganador del Premio Alfaguara de Novela 2008 y del Premio Iberoamericano SM de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil 2022. Ha publicado las novelas para adultos Chiquita (Alfaguara) y Aprendices de brujo (Rayo Harper/Collins). Sus cuentos están reunidos en Salchichas vienesas y otras ficciones (Huso Editorial). Es autor, además, de numerosos libros para niños publicados por editoriales de distintos países.

LEGNA RODRÍGUEZ IGLESIAS (Camagüey, 1984) Vive en Miami. Autora de las novelas Mayonesa bien brillante (Ediciones Matanzas, 2012); Las analfabetas, (Bokeh Press, 2015); y Mi novia preferida fue un bulldog francés, (Editorial Alfaguara, 2017). La antología poética I don’t believe in poetry (Alliteration Publishing, 2024) ha sido traducida al inglés por Robin Myers. Princesa Miami (atlas político y de población), el Premio Franz Kafka de Ensayo / Testimonio (Praga, 2024) ha sido publicado este año. La merma: un producto en existencia (Rialta Ediciones, 2024) es su último libro de poesía publicado. Ha publicado varios de cuentos y otros de poesía. Este año presenta en la Feria Crítica madre. Lenguajes de la diáspora en Estados Unidos desde Miami (Rialta Ediciones, 2023), su primer libro de ensayo, que se constituye como una libreta de apuntes sobre la conquista del territorio de la América gringa por parte de artistas nacos, ilegales, desviados, mestizos, caribeños, de género fluido y que, sobre todo, no tienen donde caerse muertos. Una obra que puede leerse a la manera de un catálogo de raros, el diario de campaña mayamense de una migrante o la película coming-of-age de una de las escritoras más iconoclastas de la literatura latinoamericana de hoy.

LUIS RODRÍGUEZ PÉREZ (Quivicán, Mayabeque, 1974). Periodista independiente y activista, defensor de los Derechos Humanos. Esposo de la expresa política Angélica Garrido, y cuñado de la poeta y actualmente presa política María Cristinas Garrido, ambas condenadas por manifestarse el 11 de julio de 2021. Como portavoz de las hermanas Garrido, ha sido su mano de auxilio y ayuda durante el encarcelamiento de ambas cubanas, además de su voz para el mundo, transmitiendo su realidad y sus mensajes desde prisión. Gracias a su gestión personal fue que se pudieron extraer de la cárcel, uno a uno, los trozos de papeles escritos por la poeta María Cristina Garrido, reunidos en el libro Voz cautiva (Ed. Deslinde, Madrid, 2024).

Born and raised in New York’s the Bronx, HECTOR ROMERO’s DJ experiences include playing legendary venues like Red Zone, Limelight, Palladium, Save the Robots, the Roxy, Cielo, and Output. Over the years he has evolved into one of New York City’s prime ambassadors of house music, bringing his unique soulful and Latin-inspired house vibe to venues around the world. With 40-plus years of experience, this career jock is now throwing his musical diversity and eclectic taste as a sought-after A&R force in the music industry – under his belt are various mix compilations that he has curated, including King Street’s Soulful House Journey, Nervous and Records’ Weaving Genres Vol.1 & 2, projects that showcase Romero’s abilities as both a DJ and an A&R exec. He attributes his business savvy to having worked with industry legend Judy Weinstein during his 20-plus years at Def Mix Productions. This is where he matured as a record executive working alongside Grammy Award-winning DJs David Morales, Frankie Knuckles, and Satoshi Tomiie. Those relationships taught him essential lessons about the equal importance of a great beat and a great song. Currently Romero acts as A&R director of Orianna Music, a Latin Electronic boutique label owned and operated by Sony Music, a position he truly loves. Although New York is still his home, he spends a great deal of time traveling, and can be found stirring up dance floors in Italy, Greece, Japan, Spain, Canada, and various parts of the world.

R.M. ROMERO (she/they) is a Jewish Latina and international bestselling author of fairy tales for children and adults, including The Dollmakers of Krakow, The House of Rose Hill, and A Warning About Swans. Their most recent book is Death's Country (Peachtree Teen). Her work has been selected as an Indie Next Pick, a Jewish National Book Award finalist, a two-time Sydney Taylor Notable Book, a Carnegie Award nominee, and a Best YA Book by Kirkus and School Library Journal. She spends her summers helping to maintain Jewish cemeteries in Poland.

MIKE ROMEU is the founder and CEO of Sweet Melody Crafter Ice Cream. The company prides itself in presenting familiar (and not so familiar) flavors whimsically and creatively, telling its story one pint at a time by using only the finest ingredients.

SANTIAGO RONCAGLIOLO Nació en Lima, Perú, en 1975. Jugando con el thriller, el noir y el humor negro, ha publicado siete novelas. Abril rojo recibió el premio Alfaguara y el Independent Foreign Fiction Prize británico. La pena máxima fue finalista del premio francés Violeta Negra y ha sido llevada al cine, al igual que Pudor. Y líbranos del mal se mantuvo durante un año en la lista de las novelas peruanas más vendidas. Su último libro, de cuentos, se titula Lejos y habla sobre la vida de los latinoamericanos en España. También ha publicado una trilogía de historias reales sobre el siglo XX hispanoamericano, entre ellas, La cuarta espada, sobre Sendero Luminoso y El amante uruguayo acerca de Federico García Lorca. Sus libros para niños han sido distinguidos con el premio Barco de Vapor peruano y el White Raven de la Biblioteca de Múnich. Reside en España, desde donde escribe series de televisión y películas, muchas de ellas basadas en libros. Llega este año a la Feria con su nueva novela El accidente (Planeta), un thriller literario cuya protagonista -mujer exitosa, profesional, madre y esposa -, narra los hechos desde la cárcel. Cómo llegó ella a esa situación es lo que el lector irá descubriendo, al tiempo que será testigo de cómo se desmorona la vida aparentemente perfecta de quienes se mueven en las altas esferas de la sociedad latinoamericana.

SUSAN ROSE is an award-winning theater and film producer. She is the Tony Award-winning producer of The Band’s Visit; her other Broadway productions include the Tony-nominated shows Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Hurlyburly, Blood Knot, The Who’s Tommy, and Illinoise. She coproduced Macbeth, starring Daniel Craig, and the Drama Desk Award-winning musical The Last Five Years. Rose’s film credits include the Emmy-nominated A Cooler Climate starring Sally Field, the Emmy-winning Jack starring Stockard Channing, and others. She is the co-author of two children’s books: José and El Perro (Penguin Workshop), which was named one of the best children’s books of 2023 by the New York Public Library, and José and Feliz Play Fútbol (Penguin Workshop).

DANIEL-GÉRARD ROUZIER has written five books: Vision ou Illusion; Le Pouvoir des Idées; Croire, Aimer et Espérer; Praxis; and Mémoires d'un Fou: Un roman historique/Memoirs of a Madman: A historical novel (‎independently published). Born in Port-au-Prince, Haïti, Rouzier is chair of the board of E-Power, chair of the board of SunAuto, a board member of Food for the Poor, and an honorary consul of Jamaica in Haiti.

NAYANTARA ROY is a TV executive at STARZ/Lionsgate, where she oversees the acquisition and creative development of original scripted TV series. Prior to STARZ, she worked at Endeavor Content (Normal People, Nine Perfect Strangers) and at AGBO, Joe and Anthony Russo’s TV studio. In 2018, Roy won the Rick Demarinis Short Story Award for 8C. Originally from India, she is a 2020 alumna of the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment executive leaders program and is a jury member of the STARZ #TakeTheLead director’s program, which is designed to create more directing opportunities for women and people of color. Her plays have been performed internationally, including at Prithvi Theater in Mumbai, India, and Contact Theater in Manchester, United Kingdom. Roy lives in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles.

MAX RUDIN is the president and publisher of the Library of America. He writes on American history, literature, music, and popular culture; gives frequent talks on American writing; and produces and hosts LOA Live, an online series on American literature and history that reaches viewers in all 50 states and 77 countries and territories. He has directed many national public humanities initiatives, most recently Lift Every Voice: Why African American Poetry Matters and currently Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home, a partnership with public libraries and arts organizations. Rudin holds degrees in English and American literature from Princeton University and Columbia University.

MICHAEL RUHLMAN is the author of If You Can't Take the Heat (Penguin Workshop) and 12 previous nonfiction books, including The Making of a Chef and its follow-ups, The Soul of a Chef and The Reach of a Chef. He is the recipient of two James Beard awards – one for magazine feature writing and the other for Twenty: The Ideas and Techniques that Will Make You a Better Cook. He has co-authored many cookbooks, such as The French Laundry Cookbook, Bouchon, Under Pressure, Ad Hoc At Home, and Bouchon Bakery with Thomas Keller. In 2015, he published his first work of fiction, In Short Measures: Three Novellas.

DANIELA RUS, co-author of The Mind's Mirror: Risk and Reward in the Age of AI (W. W. Norton & Company) and The Heart and the Chip: Our Bright Future with Robots, is a pioneering roboticist and a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, where she is the director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. A global leader in robotics and AI, she is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a MacArthur Fellow.