Noreen Tomassi is director of the Center for Fiction in New York City, the only nonprofit literary center in the U.S. solely devoted to the art of fiction.

Jess Walter is the author of six novels, most recently The New York Times bestseller Beautiful Ruins. He was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award for The Zero and winner of the 2005 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best novel for Citizen Vince. His short fiction and essays have appeared in Harper’s, McSweeney’s, Playboy, and other publications.

Chuck Palahniuk is an American novelist and freelance journalist, who describes his work as transgressional fiction. He is best known as the author of the award-winning novel Fight Club, which also was made into a feature film.

Gerry Howard is Vice President & Executive Editor at Doubleday, where he has edited Kate Christensen, Walter Kirn, Bill Bryson, and Gore Vidal. He has been Chuck Palahniuk’s editor since his debut novel, Fight Club. In 2008, he received the Maxwell E. Perkins Award from The Center for Fiction.

Calvert Morgan is executive editor at Harper and editorial director of Harper Perennial, imprints of HarperCollins Publishers, and a board member at the Center for Fiction. His authors include Jess Walter, Blake Butler, Ben Greenman, T. J. English, Stanley Crouch, Molly Crabapple, and Kate Zambreno.