Speakers

  • A young person with short, dark hair wearing a black textured sweater looks over their shoulder against a bright yellow-green background.

    Silvia Park

    Silvia Park is the author of Luminous, which was longlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Science Fiction, and longlisted…

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  • Black and white photo of a man with short dark hair, a beard, and a slight smile, wearing a jacket over a collared shirt, set against a solid bright blue background.

    Phil Klay

    Phil Klay is a novelist and essayist. His short story collection Redeployment won the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction and the National Book Critics’ Circle John Leonard Prize for…

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  • A person with shoulder-length dark hair, glasses, and a black sleeveless top is smiling softly, resting their chin on their hand, sitting in front of a bright pink background.

    Lily Philpott

    Lily Philpott is an Indigenous transracial adoptee born in Santiago, Chile and raised in New England. She has worked for close to a decade in the arts…

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  • A woman with dark wavy hair, wearing a houndstooth-patterned coat, looks at the camera. The background is a solid bright yellow-green color. The image is in black and white except for the background.

    Joanna Pocock

    Joanna Pocock is the author of the travel memoir Surrender, which won the 2018 Fitzcarraldo Editions Essay Prize. Her following book, Greyhound, was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions and…

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  • A woman with long light brown hair, wearing a teal top, looking thoughtful against a bright yellow-green background.

    Sarah Ruhl

    Sarah Ruhl is a playwright, poet, and essayist. Her books include Smile, a memoir; 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write (a New York Times Notable…

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  • An older woman with short gray hair and a neutral expression, wearing a dark V-neck shirt, is shown against a solid blue background.

    Esmeralda Santiago

    Esmeralda Santiago is a Puerto Rican author who came to the United States from rural Puerto Rico at age thirteen and grew up in Brooklyn. Her experiences…

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  • A woman with short platinum blonde hair and light eyes, wearing drop earrings and a light-colored shirt, poses against a bright pink background.

    Svetlana Satchkova

    Svetlana Satchkova is a Russian-born journalist and novelist who immigrated to the United States in 2016. She covers culture and politics, with bylines in The Rumpus, Newsweek,…

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  • A woman with shoulder-length brown hair, wearing a maroon collared jacket, smiles at the camera against a solid blue background.

    Bénédicte Savoy

    Bénédicte Savoy is professor of modern art history at Technische Universität Berlin. From 2016 to 2021, she also held a chair at the Collège de France, focusing…

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  • A woman with long brown hair is smiling broadly and looking slightly upward. She is wearing a patterned dark top and standing in front of a solid bright blue background.

    Madeline Sayet

    Madeline Sayet is a Mohegan director, playwright, and scholar who believes the stories we pass down shape our collective possible futures. Her accolades include being named a…

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  • A woman with long black hair, wearing a white top with black trim and gold tassel earrings, smiles at the camera against a bright yellow-green background.

    Betty Shamieh

    Betty Shamieh is a Palestinian American novelist and playwright. Her debut novel, Too Soon, was selected as a PEOPLE Magazine Book of the Week and an NPR…

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  • A woman with medium-length dark hair and a neutral expression wears a sleeveless gray top, posed against a bright yellow-green background.

    Susan Shapiro

    Susan B. Shapiro is an award-winning Manhattan journalist and writing professor. She is the bestselling author/coauthor of books her family hates that have been translated into 12…

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  • A woman with long, curly black hair smiles at the camera. She is wearing a dark, striped blazer over a black top, with a bright yellow-green background behind her.

    Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf

    Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf is Co–Chief Executive Officer of PEN America, which she joined in 2015. She previously served as Chief Program Officer for Literary Programming, overseeing the…

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  • A man with short, light hair and glasses wearing a suit and tie looks slightly upward. The photo is black and white, and the background is bright pink.

    Gary Shteyngart

    Gary Shteyngart is the author of the novels The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, Absurdistan, Super Sad True Love Story, and Our Country Friends, and the memoir Little Failure.…

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  • A woman with long brown hair and a faint smile is facing the camera. She is wearing a teal top, and the background is bright yellow-green.

    Neige Sinno

    Neige Sinno is a French writer who lived for almost twenty years in Mexico. She studied and taught literature at various universities and has written essays, stories,…

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  • A black-and-white portrait of a woman with short hair, large dark cat-eye glasses, and geometric earrings, resting her chin on her hand, set against a bright pink background.

    Patricia Smith

    Patricia Smith is the author of nine books of poetry, including The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems (Scribner, 2025), winner of the 2025 National Book…

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  • A woman with short brown hair and a neutral expression wears a dark top and a chunky, colorful necklace, posing in front of a bright yellow-green background.

    Sandra Smith

    Sandra Smith is a translator that has has published over forty translations, including Suite Française and twelve other novels by Irène Némirovsky, But You Did Not Come…

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