JESSICA BERGER GROSS is the author of the memoir Estranged: Leaving Family and Finding Home. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Cut, Longreads, and many other publications. She graduated from Vassar College and has a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Originally from New York, she lives in Maine with her husband and teenage son. Hazel Says No is her first novel.

TENZIN CHOPAK is a singer-songwriter based in Ithaca, NY. Raised in Oak Ridge, TN, with a singing minister father and watercolor-artist mother, Chopak was surrounded and suffused by art and music throughout his childhood. Chopak’s unique and hauntingly timeless voice resonates with his deep roots to the music of the American south. His transportive songs and live performances have been described as “incandescent, cinematic, soul scorchingly beautiful,” and as an “unmistakably singular sound” according to No Depression Magazine. Chopak’s upcoming studio album, Witness, was recorded in Nashville and will be released in 2025.

JESSICA SHATTUCK is The New York Times bestselling author of the novels the Last House, and The Women in the Castle – which was also a #1 Indie Next Pick, and winner of The New England Book Award. She also wrote Perfect Life and The Hazards of Good Breeding -- which was a New York Times Notable Book, a Boston Globe Editor’s Choice Best Book of the Year, and a finalist for the 2003 PEN/Winship Award. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Guernica, Glamour, Open City, and The Tampa Review among other publications. She lives in Brookline with her family.

THE STARLINGS’ members are originally from some of Boston’s most loved bands: 

Kelly Knapp from THE BRISTOLS and DARLINGS • Eric Martin from THE NEATS and ILLYRIANS • Therese Bellino from LAZY SUSAN and BFF •     Dave Fredette from TITANICS and UPPER CRUST • and Ed Riemer from THE DARLINGS, BAND 19 and WHEELERS AND DEALERS. 

The Starlings combine their varied backgrounds, blending their influences and gorgeous harmonies, creating their own dynamic sound and soulful vibe.