CHAIR | CLAUDIA RANKINE

Read Claudia’s Chair Letter here!

Claudia Rankine is a poet, essayist, and playwright. Rankine’s most recent book, Just Us: An American Conversation completes her groundbreaking trilogy, following Don’t Let Me Be Lonely and Citizen, which was a New York Times best seller and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and numerous other awards. She is a MacArthur Fellow and the Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry at Yale University.

HONORARY CHAIR | MISTY COPELAND

“I wouldn’t be the woman and artist that I am today without having had books to nurture my creativity and intellect. My family and I didn’t have much growing up to allow for me and my siblings to be a part of extracurricular activities. However, before being discovered and taken into my ballet school on scholarship, my school library was my beautiful escape.”

MISTY COPELAND is the first African American woman to ever be promoted to the position of Principal Dancer for the American Ballet Theatre. She is the author of the New York Times Bestselling memoir, Life in Motion, co-written with award-winning journalist and author Charisse Jones, and has a picture book titled Firebird in collaboration with award-winning illustrator and author Christopher Myers. Her book, Ballerina Body, was another instant New York Times Bestseller, and in 2020, Misty celebrated the publication of her latest children’s book, Bunheads, with illustrator Setor Fiadzigbey.

HONORARY CHAIR | VALERIA LUISELLI

“Reading is, simply put, a revolutionary activity. It’s not about consumerist entertainment, not about passive comfort, not even about filling our big wide interior void. It’s about our readiness to change our minds by means of inhabiting another’s interiority. Welcome to the club of radical, revolutionary nerdship!”

VALERIA LUISELLI was born in Mexico City and grew up in South Korea, South Africa, and India. She is the author of the award-winning novels Faces in the Crowd (2014) and The Story of My Teeth (2015) and the essay collections Sidewalks (2014) and Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions (2017)—all published by Coffee House Press. Tell Me How It Ends was described by the Texas Observer as “the first must-read book of the Trump era” and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. Her most recent novel, Lost Children Archive (Knopf), was a winner of the 2020 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the 2020 Folio Prize., and shortlisted for the Simpson Literary Prize. Luiselli is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Her work has been translated to over 20 languages.

HONORARY CHAIR | MICHELLE TEA

“There’s no need to go anywhere when you can go everywhere with books. Grab a couple, and some snacks, hunker down and enjoy life’s greatest pleasure.”

Author and literary organizer MICHELLE TEA is the author of ten books of memoir, fiction and poetry, most recently the speculative memoir Black Wave. Her award-winning memoir Valencia was made into a feature-length film with the help of 21 directors, including Jill Soloway, Cheryl Dunye and Silas Howard. She is the editor of Amethyst Editions, an imprint of Feminist Press. Her writing has appeared in Harpers, The Believer, n+1, Buzzfeed, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, xoJane.com and many other print and web publications. She lives in Los Angeles.

HONORARY CHAIR | CHARLES YU

“Legs stretched, feet warm, tea hot, lights soft, book open, mind ready for travel through space and time. Something we can each do separately that brings us all together, now and in the future. Stay home and read a book? Um, yes please!”

CHARLES YU is the author of four books, including his latest, Interior Chinatown, won the National Book Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the Le Prix Médicis étranger, and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. He has received the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award, been nominated for two Writers Guild of America awards for his work on the HBO series Westworld, and has also written for shows on FX, AMC, Facebook Watch, and Adult Swim. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in a number of publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Wired, Time and Ploughshares. You can find him on Twitter @charles_yu.

Invitation design by Rick Meyerowitz

Rick Meyerowitz is known by many as the most prolific contributor of illustrated articles to the National Lampoon. He painted the iconic poster for the movie Animal House, and his many projects with Maira Kalman include the acclaimed New Yorker cover “New Yorkistan.” It sold out in one day.