Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR’s Fresh Air, is critic in residence and professor of the practice at Georgetown University and the winner of the 1999 Edgar Award for criticism, presented by the Mystery Writers of America. She is the author of So We Read On: How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures and Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading!

Marlon James's most recent novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, was the winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize, The American Book Award, and The Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize for fiction. He is also the author of the novels John Crow's Devil and The Book of Night Women.

Thomas Mallon’s nine books of fiction include Henry and Clara, Fellow Travelers, Watergate (a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award), and most recently, Finale: A Novel of the Reagan Years. He has also written volumes of nonfiction about plagiarism (Stolen Words), diaries (A Book of One’s Own), letters (Yours Ever), and the Kennedy assassination (Mrs. Paine’s Garage), as well as two books of essays (Rockets and Rodeos and In Fact). His honors include Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships, membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Vursell Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters for distinguished prose style.