“ROCKIN’ IN THE BOOK WORLD – 32 YEARS OF THE ROCK BOTTOM REMAINDERS” – PANEL

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.

AMY TAN is the author of several novels, including The Joy Luck Club and The Bonesetter's Daughter. She is a co-producer and co-screenwriter of the film version of The Joy Luck Club, a member of the American Academy of Arts & Letters, a recipient of the National Humanities Medal, and an instructor with MasterClass on fiction writing. She also serves on the boards of American Bird Conservancy, The National Poetry Series and The Community of Writers. She divides her time between Sausalito, California, and New York. Her latest book, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, is a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. 

DAVE BARRY is the author of more bestsellers than you can count on two hands, including Swamp Story, Lessons from Lucy, Dave Barry’s Complete Guide to Guys, Dave Barry Turns Forty, and Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up. He is also the lead guitarist of the literary rock band the Rock Bottom Remainders. No, really. A wildly popular syndicated columnist, Barry won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. He lives in Miami.

MARY KARR is an award-winning poet and bestselling memoirist. She is the author of the critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling memoirs The Liars' Club, Cherry, and Lit, as well as the Art of Memoir, and five poetry collections, most recently Tropic of Squalor (Harper Collins).

MITCH ALBOM is an inspirational author, screenwriter, philanthropist, journalist, and broadcaster. He has written numerous fiction and nonfiction books, collectively selling more than 40 million copies in 48 languages worldwide. He is also the author of eight No. 1 New York Times bestsellers, including the bestselling memoir of all time, Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson (Crown), which topped the list for four straight years and celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2022. Albom has also written award-winning TV films, stage plays, screenplays, a nationally syndicated newspaper column, and a musical. He appeared for more than 20 years on ESPN, where he was a fixture on The Sports Reporters. Through his work at the Detroit Free Press, he was inducted into both the National Sports Media Association and Michigan Sports Halls of Fame, and received the Associated Press Sports Editors’ Red Smith Award for lifetime achievement. Since 2006, Albom has operated nine charitable programs in southeast Michigan under his SAY Detroit umbrella, including the nation's first medical clinic for homeless children. Since 2010, he has operated the Have Faith Haiti orphanage in Port au Prince, Haiti, which he visits monthly without exception.

RIDLEY PEARSON is the author of the bestselling Kingdom Keepers Inheritance middle-grade thriller series and 40 other novels for adults and young readers. He also co-wrote, with Dave Barry, Peter and the Starcatchers, a prequel to J.M. Barry’s Peter Pan; later adapted for Broadway, it won five Tony Awards. His novel The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life At Rose Red was filmed as an ABC TV movie special event. A Fulbright fellow, Ridley taught creative writing at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and at Boise State University. Kingdom Keepers: Inheritance: Villains' Realm (Kingdom Keepers Inheritance Book 2) (Disney Hyperion) is the second installment of his Kingdom Keepers Inheritance trilogy.

ROY BLOUNT Jr. is the author of 24 books about everything from the Pittsburgh Steelers (About Three Bricks Shy of a Load, a chronicle of the 1973 season) and Robert E. Lee to what dogs are thinking. His latest is Save Room for Pie: Food Songs and Chewy Ruminations (Sarah Crichton Books). His essays, articles, stories, verses, and even drawings have appeared in 171 periodicals, including The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Gourmet, Playboy, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Rolling Stone. He performs regularly with the literary rock band the Rock Bottom Remainders. Born in Indianapolis and raised in Decatur, Georgia, Blount lives in western Massachusetts with his wife, the painter Joan Griswold.

SAM BARRY is an author, freelance editor, musician, and publishing professional. He is the author of How to Play the Harmonica: and Other Life Lessons. He co-authored Write That Book Already! The Tough Love You Need to Get Published Now with his late wife, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, and Always a Song: Singers, Songwriters, Sinners, and Saints – My Story of the Folk Music Revival with Ellen Harper, with a foreword by Ben Harper. As a member of the literary rock band the Rock Bottom Remainders, Barry edited and co-authored Hard Listening: The Greatest Rock Band Ever (of Authors) Tells All with his bandmates Mitch Albom, Dave Barry, Roy Blount Jr., Matt Groening, Greg Iles, Stephen King, James McBride, Roger McGuinn, Ridley Pearson, Amy Tan, and Scott Turow. Previously, Barry was an ordained Presbyterian minister, worked for HarperCollins, created and directed Book Passage’s Path to Publishing program, and wrote the popular Author Enabler column in BookPage. Barry lives, writes, and plays music in the San Francisco Bay area.

SCOTT TUROW is the author of many bestselling works of fiction, including The Last Trial, Testimony, Identical, Innocent, Presumed Innocent, and The Burden of Proof, and two nonfiction books, including One L, about his experience as a law student. His books have been translated into more than 40 languages, have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, and been adapted into movies and television projects. He has frequently contributed essays and op-ed pieces to publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. Suspect (Grand Central Publishing) is his latest book.

STEPHEN KING was born in Portland, Maine, in 1947. He made his first professional short story sale in 1967 to Startling Mystery Stories. In the fall of 1971, he began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, a public high school in Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels. In the spring of 1973, Doubleday & Co. accepted the novel Carrie for publication, providing King with the means to leave teaching and write full time. He has since published more than 50 books and has become one of the world's most successful writers. King is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to the American Letters and the 2014 National Medal of Arts. He lives in Maine and Florida with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. They are regular contributors to several charities including many libraries, and have been honored locally for their philanthropic activities.