Authors

TIM WENDEL’s books include Summer of ’68, Castro’s Curveball, and his new historical novel, Rebel Falls (Three Hills). Having grown up near Niagara Falls, New York, Wendel has always been fascinated by its raging waters. A writer-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University, his honors include a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Selection, Latino Literary Award, Publishers Weekly Top 10 title, and an Indie Book Award. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Gargoyle, and Esquire.

ROMULUS EARL WHITAKER III is unquestionably one of the best-known figures on the wildlife conservation scene in India. He is famous for establishing Madras Snake Park, the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, and the Andaman and Nicobar Environmental Team, as well as for his work conserving India's rainforests – the habitat of so many endangered species. Internationally, he has received the Rolex Award for Enterprise, the Whitley Award for his contribution to nature conservation, and the Padma Shri in 2018. Whitaker is a co-author of Snakes of India: The Field Guide with Ashok Captain, which is considered the definitive work on the subject.

KIMBERLY WHITE serves as the youth services coordinator for the Broward County Libraries Division community engagement team, a position she has held since 2017. As part of the team, she believes in the power of libraries as an essential part of a vibrant community. White began her career as an elementary school teacher in New London, Connecticut, where she first started to see how vital it was to connect emerging and reluctant readers with the books they truly loved. Upon completion of her master's degree in library science, she worked with an academic imprint of Gale Cengage and discovered the joys of archives and primary source materials. In 2010 White began working as a youth services librarian in suburban and urban public libraries, and since then has enjoyed creating connections between libraries, families, and community organizations.

DEBRA WHITMAN, PH.D., is AARP’s chief public policy officer and the former staff director for the Senate Special Committee on Aging. She holds a doctorate in economics from Syracuse University and lives in Maryland.

MAYA WILEY is president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the nation's oldest and largest civil rights coalition. A former legal analyst on MSNBC, this lifelong civil rights advocate and a civil rights attorney mounted a historic performance in New York City's 2021 Democratic mayoral primary, contesting to be the first woman mayor on a reform platform. Before that race, Wiley served as senior vice president for social justice at New School University and as a member of the graduate faculty at its Milano School. The first Black woman to serve as counsel to a New York City mayor, her expertise and compassionate approach were (and remain) almost unprecedented in the world of advocacy, activism, and politics. Wiley also serves as the Joseph L. Rash Jr. Chair of Civil and Human Rights at the University of the District of Columbia School of Law.

LADARRION WILLIAMS is a Los Angeles-based playwright, filmmaker, author, and screenwriter whose goal is to cultivate a new era of Black fantasy, providing space and agency for Black characters and stories in a new, fresh and fantastical way. He is currently a resident playwright and co-creator of The Black Creators Collective, where his play UMOJA made its West Coast debut in January 2022. He also produced North Hollywood’s first Black playwrights’ festival at the Waco Theater Center. Blood at the Root (Labyrinth Road) is Williams’ first novel. His viral and award-winning short film based on the same concept is currently available on YouTube and Amazon Prime.

MARIANNE WILLIAMSON is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and activist. Six of her published books have been New York Times bestsellers; her titles include A Return to Love, A Year of Miracles, The Law of Divine Compensation, The Gift of Change, The Age of Miracles, Everyday Grace, A Woman’s Worth, and Illuminata. Her latest book is The Mystic Jesus: The Mind of Love (The Marianne Williamson Series) (HarperOne).

ELIZABETH WILLIS is the author of Liontaming in America (New Directions), a hybrid work engaged with American belief and relationship structures, theater, activism, and film. Her other books of poetry include Alive: New and Selected Poems, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, as well as Address, Meteoric Flowers, Turneresque, The Human Abstract, and the artist’s book Spectral Evidence. She also wrote about the intersection of art and labor and edited the volume Radical Vernacular: Lorine Niedecker and the Poetics of Place. She teaches at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

IAN WILSON-NAVARRO, a Florida Keys native, grew up exploring the reefs, seagrass flats, and mangrove islands of the backyard of his home archipelago. A passionate outdoorsperson and advocate for conservation, he blended his deep-rooted affinity for the Keys with his fervor for adventure sports such as surfing, free diving, and fly fishing. These pursuits fostered his intimate relationship with the natural environment. His imagery has been featured in Garden and Gun, Field and Stream, and The Fly Fish Journal. Wilson-Navarro's active engagement with conservation organizations like Bonefish and Tarpon Trust underscores his commitment to the cause.

COLIN WINNETTE is the author of several books, including The Job of the Wasp, which was longlisted for the Believer Book Award, and the indie bestseller Coyote. His most recent book, Users: A Novel (Soft Skull), was a finalist for the 2024 Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction, a New York Times Editor’s Choice pick, and a New Yorker Best Book of the Week, and was called the “first great novel about virtual reality” by The Nation. Winnette's fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and publications, including McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Playboy, Gulf Coast Journal, BOMB, and AGNI. Originally from Denton, Texas, he now lives in San Francisco and can be found online at colinwinnette.com.

AVA NATHANIEL WINTER is the author of Transgenesis (Milkweed Editions), selected for the 2023 National Poetry Series, and the poetry chapbook Safe House. Her work has appeared in The Baffler, Beloit Poetry Journal, Poetry International, Room, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere. She served as a Stadler Fellow at Bucknell University and received an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council. Winter holds an MFA from Ohio State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she teaches in the Department of English and the Women's and Gender Studies Program.

WILEMA WONG Nacida en Cuba en 1978. Emigró a España en el 2012 y en 2013 se estableció en Miami. Se graduó en Historia del Arte en la Universidad de La Habana y trabajó por once años en el Instituto de Cine, en los Estudios de Animación. Desde el 2017 trabaja para el Estado de Florida. Con su primera novela La Habana en mi balcón ganó el IV Concurso Internacional de Novela Contacto Latino en 2016, y en el International Latino Book Award 2017 el Segundo lugar en la categoría Mejor Primer libro – ficción – español y Mención honorable en la categoría Mejor novela – aventura o drama – español. Su cuento Ejercicio de poder fue publicado en Féminas: antología de infidelidades y mentiras escritas por mujeres (Ars Communis, 2021). Este año presenta en la Feria El francés (El Ateje): durante sus años de universitaria en La Habana, Marina vive un torbellino de emociones al conocer a un francés treinta años mayor, residente en la isla. Lo que comienza como un romance apasionado se convierte en una relación oscura, inestable y profunda. Marina y Philippe se adentran en un laberinto de incertidumbres y descubrimientos, en el que se exploran como seres humanos y transitan por los finos límites entre los contrarios.

HUANG YI is a Taiwanese dancer, choreographer, inventor, and videographer renowned for his pioneering work that explores the partnership between humans and robots. Named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch," Huang's work has been celebrated globally, including performances at the Ars Electronica Festival in Austria, TED Conference in Vancouver, and venues across Australia, the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the UAE.

EMILY JUNGMIN YOON is the author of Ordinary Misfortunes and A Cruelty Special to Our Species, a finalist for the 2020 Kate Tufts Discovery Award. She is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and Ploughshares, and her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, and The Sewanee Review. Yoon is the poetry editor for The Margins, the literary magazine of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, and she is an assistant professor of Korean literature at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She splits her time between Honolulu and South Korea.

NICOLA YOON is the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Instructions for Dancing (Delacorte Press), Everything, Everything (Delacorte Press), and The Sun Is Also a Star (Delacorte Press). She is also a co-author of Blackout: A Novel (Quill Tree Books). Yoon is a National Book Award finalist, a Michael L. Printz Award recipient, a Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe New Talent Award winner and the first Black woman to hit No. 1 on NYT's young adult bestseller list. Two of her novels have been made into major motion pictures. She’s also the co-publisher of Joy Revolution, a Random House young adult imprint dedicated to love stories starring people of color. Yoon grew up in Jamaica and Brooklyn, New York, and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, the novelist David Yoon, and their daughter.

Entrepreneur and investor PAYAM ZAMANI is the founder of One Planet Group and the author of Crossing the Desert: The Power of Embracing Life's Difficult Journeys. Born in Iran, he was forced to flee at the age of 16 due to his religious beliefs as a Baha’i. He and his brother founded AutoWeb, one of the first online car marketplaces, which they took public in 1999. Since then Zamani has built and currently owns multiple technology and media businesses, has invested in more than 50 companies, and strives to redefine capitalism so that business can serve humanity.

MARIANA ZAPATA is a New York Times, USA Today, international, and No. 1 Amazon bestselling author. Her books have been translated into more than 20 languages. She is a Texan living in a small town in Colorado with her husband and their beloved Great Danes. When she's not pretending to write, she's reading.

MOON UNIT ZAPPA was born in 1967 to legendary musician Frank Vincent Zappa and his second wife, Gail Zappa. At the age of 14, she appeared on her father's career-defining song “Valley Girl,” which later helped jumpstart her career. Since then, she has firmly established herself as a writer, actress, comedian, artist, podcaster, and tea merchant.

ALAN ZWEIBEL began his comedy career selling jokes for $7 apiece to the last of the Borscht Belt standups and went on to become one of the original Saturday Night Live writers, penning material for Gilda Radner, John Belushi, and all of the Not Ready For Prime Time Players. From SNL, he went on to have a hand in a series of landmark shows – from It's Garry Shandling's Show to Curb Your Enthusiasm. Zweibel has won multiple Emmy and Writers Guild of America awards for his work in television, and he collaborated with Billy Crystal on the Tony Award-winning Broadway play 700 Sundays. His recent work includes co-writing and co-producing the upcoming film Here Today, starring Crystal and Tiffany Haddish. Zweibel's novel The Other Shulman was awarded the Thurber Prize for American Humor.