J. Courtney Sullivan is the New York Times best-selling author of the novels Commencement,  Maine, The Engagements, Saints for All Occasions, and Friends and Strangers. Her latest novel, The Cliffs, is Reese Witherspoon's July 2024 book club pick. Sullivan's work has been translated into seventeen languages. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, New York, Real Simple, and O, The Oprah Magazine,  among many others. In 2017, she wrote the forewords to new editions of two of her favorite classic novels—Anne of Green Gables and Little Women. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two children.

*photo by Michael Lionstar

Naomi Westwater (they/she) is a queer, Black-multiracial singer-songwriter from Massachusetts. Their work combines folk-rock music, poetry, and spirituality, in the hope that through ritual and storytelling, they can aid nature in the end of capitalism and the return to community, creativity, and collective joy. Naomi holds a Master of Music in Contemporary Performance and Production from Berklee College of Music and is a part of The Club Passim Folk Collective where she produces Re-Imagining Lilith Fair. Naomi was nominated for a 2021 and 2022 Boston Music Award for best singer-songwriter, and has been featured in The Boston Globe, Under The Radar, WBUR, WGBH, and The Bluegrass Situation. On the faculty at Club Passim and Not Sorry Productions, Naomi is currently producing the series Reclaiming Folk: A Celebration of People of Color in Folk Music. 

*photo by Ally Schmaling

Marianne Leone is an actress, screenwriter, and essayist. Her essays have appeared in the Boston Globe, Lit Hub, Ploughshares, Post Road, Bark Magazine, Coastal Living, Solstice, and elsewhere. She is the author of two memoirs, Jesse and Ma Speaks Up. She had a recurring role on HBO’s The Sopranos as Joanne Moltisanti, Christopher’s mother. She has also appeared in films by David O. Russell, Larry David, John Sayles, Nancy Savoca, and Martin Scorsese. Her latest book is Five-Dog Epiphany, out in September from Gracie Belle/Akashic books.

*photo by Kerry Brett

Kris Delmhorst is an American songwriter, singer, instrumentalist, and producer. She’s released eight full-length solo albums, most on the enduring indie label Signature Sounds, as well as a panoply of EPs and side projects including an album of reworkings of well-known poems, and a collection of all-acoustic covers of songs by new-wave heroes The Cars. A true musician’s musician, Delmhorst has become known for constant collaboration and a free-range, genre-agnostic curiosity. Her songs have been included in TV series and feature films, and she’s appeared as a vocalist or instrumentalist on dozens of albums and produced projects for Session Americana, Jeremy Moses Curtis, and others. She lives in Western Mass. with her husband, the songwriter Jeffrey Foucault, and their daughter.

 *photo by Brittany Powers