James Wood is a staff writer at the New Yorker, where he writes mainly about literature. He is the author of several books of essays, two novels, and a study of the technique and craft of fiction entitled How Fiction Works (2008), which has been translated into fifteen languages. His most recent book is Serious Noticing: Selected Essays 1997-2017 (2019).

photo by Claire Messud

Elsa Kennedy is a singer-songwriter, actress, and multimedia artist originally from a small town in Kentucky. A self-taught prodigy with a natural talent for singing and performance, she began performing at age ten. As a prolific, renaissance artist, Elsa has developed a unique voice that blends her roots in "Weird America" with contemporary sounds and visions. An electric force of nature, she is forging a bold, boundary-defying wave of art and music. Kennedy currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts. 
 

photo by Elsa Kennedy

John Sayles is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for Passion Fish and Lone Star. He has written seven novels, the most recent being Yellow Earth and A Moment in the Sun. His latest novels are the epic and historical novel, Jamie MacGillivray: The Renegade’s Journey (now in paperback) and most recently the historical novel, To Save the Man.

photo by Mary Sybulski
 

Peter Mulvey has been a songwriter, road-dog, raconteur and almost-poet since before he can remember, from busking the streets of Dublin to international touring, opening for such luminaries as Ani DiFranco, Emmylou Harris, and Chuck Prophet. He’s recorded nineteen records, created an illustrated book, a TEDx talk, and hosts his own boutique festival, The Lamplighter Sessions, in Boston and Wisconsin. Mulvey has built his life’s work on collaboration and an instinct for the eclectic and the vital, folding everything he encounters into his art: poetry, social justice, scientific literacy, and a deeply abiding humanism. His latest, the live record “Peter Mulvey with SistaStrings Live at the Cafe Carpe” is out now on Righteous Babe Records. 
 

photo by Joe Navas