Mary Jo Bang is the author of six poetry collections, including The Last Two Seconds and Elegy, which won the 2009 Nation Book Critics Circle Award and the translator of a groundbreaking rendition of Dante’s Inferno.

Walter Bargen has published eighteen books of poetry. His most recent books are include Gone West (2014). He was appointed the first poet laureate of Missouri (2008-2009).

Eleanor Brown is the New York Times and international bestselling author of The Weird Sisters, which was an Amazon Best Book of the Month, Barnes and Noble Discover Selection, Indie Next Pick, and winner of the Colorado Book Award.

David Clewell is the author of 10 collections of poems—most recently, Almost Nothing to Be Scared Of (University of Wisconsin Press, 2016)—and two book-length poems. He served as Poet Laureate of Missouri from 2010-2012.

Mark Doty is one of America’s most acclaimed and beloved poets. He is one of our foremost writers on the AIDS crisis and the ongoing hazards of being gay in America, yet is also renowned for poems of landscape and flora. Doty is the author of nine poetry collections, including Deep Lane.

John Freeman was the editor of Granta until 2013. His books include How to Read a Novelist and Tales of Two Cities: The Best of Times and Worst of Times in Today's New York.

Dinah Fried is a designer, partner at Small Stuff, and author of Fictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature’s Most Memorable Meals. Fried’s work has been recognized by the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the Type Directors Club, and 50 Books / 50 Covers and published inthe New York Times, the Guardian, the Huffington Post, NPR, and The New Yorker, among others.

Nina Mukerjee Furstenau’s writing is “lush and lyrical” (Kansas City Star) and her memoir, Biting Through the Skin: An Indian Kitchen in America’s Heartland, “blends foods and childhood, cuisine and family into a story that resonates and lingers like the spices she lovingly describes.”

George Hodgman is a veteran magazine and book editor who has worked at Simon & Schuster, Vanity Fair, and Talk magazine. His writing has appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Interview, W, and Harper’s Bazaar, among other publications. His memoir, Bettyville, is a New York Times bestseller and was the Amazon spotlight pick for March 2015.

Antony John is the author of several young adult novels, including Five Flavors of Dumb (winner of the American Library Association’s Schneider Family Book Award), and the fantasy trilogy Elemental. His latest novel, a psychological thriller, Imposter, was released in September 2015.

Todd Kliman is an author, essayist and critic. He writes a monthly column on food and drink for The Washingtonian, where he is also an editor, as well as a weekly column on culture, and his writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The New Yorker, Harper's, The Oxford American, The Daily Beast and Lucky Peach. (We are not posting a photograph of Todd because he needs to remain incognito for his job as a restaurant reviewer.)

William Least Heat-Moon was born of English-Irish-Osage ancestry in Kansas City, Missouri. He holds a bachelor’s degree in photojournalism and a doctorate in English from the University of Missouri. Among his writing credits, he is the author of Blue Highways, which spent 42 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in 1982-83. William Least Heat-Moon lives and writes outside Columbia, Missouri.

Laura McBride is the author of the 2014 debut novel We Are Called to Rise, which was a #1 Indie Next pick and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writer's choice in the United States. She teaches composition and literature at the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas.

Claire McCaskill is the first woman from Missouri to be elected to the U.S. Senate. Her memoir, Plenty Ladylike, was published in 2015 by Simon and Schuster.

Laura McHugh is the bestselling author of The Weight of Blood, winner of an International Thriller Writers Award for Best First Novel. The Weight of Blood was named a best book of the year by BookPage, the Kansas City Star, and the Sunday Times (UK), and has been nominated for a Barry Award, Alex Award, Silver Falchion Award, and GoodReads Choice Award.

Candice Millard is a former writer and editor for National Geographic magazine. Her first book, The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, was a New York Times bestseller and was named one of the best books of the year by, among others, the New York Times, Washington Post and Christian Science Monitor.

Bobby Norfolk travels both nationally and internationally presenting performances, keynotes, and workshops. Bobby has created over ten CDs, many having won the prestigious Parents Choice Gold Award, and he has co-authored eight children’s books.

Eric Praschan is the bestselling author of the suspense novels, The Burden of Silence, Blind Evil, and The James Women Trilogy, which includes Therapy for Ghosts, Sleepwalking into Darkness, and The Reckoning. He lives in Columbia, Missouri, with his wife.

Camille Rankine has been featured in O: The Oprah Magazine, New York Daily News, and American Poet as one of the country’s most impressive emerging poets. Her debut collection, Incorrect Merciful Impulses, was among most anticipated first books of 2015.

Shann Ray is the author of the debut novel American Copper, an Indie Next Pick that has garnered acclaim from Esquire, Kirkus Reviews, and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. His collection of short stories, American Masculine, received the American Book Award and the Bakeless Prize.

Patrick Rosal is one of America’s most dynamic poets of the immigrant experience, his poems ringing with the music of a multicultural existence. He is the author of four poetry collections, including Brooklyn Antediluvian and My American Kundiman, which won the 2006 Book Award in Poetry from the Association of Asian American Studies and the 2007 Global Filipino Literary Award.

GRAMMY-nominated Justin Roberts is truly one of the all-stars of the family music scene. With numerous national awards and recognition and a devoted fan base, Justin dishes out unexpectedly intelligent and whimsically rocking music for kids and their parents.

Bob Shacochis is a novelist, essayist, journalist and educator. His work has received a National Book Award for First Fiction, the Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.

Laura Vaccaro Seeger is a New York Times best-selling author and illustrator and a 2-time winner of the Caldecott Honor Award, winner of the New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award, the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award for Best Picture Book, and a 2-time winner of the Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Award.

Kayt Sukel has no problem tackling interesting (and often taboo) subjects spanning love, sex, neuroscience, travel and politics. Her work has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, the New Scientist, USA Today, Pacific Standard, the Washington Post, ISLANDS, and National Geographic Traveler.

William Trowbridge is currently Poet Laureate of Missouri. His latest collection is Put This On, Please: New and Selected Poems (Red Hen Press, 2014). His other collections are Ship of Fool, The Complete Book of Kong, Flickers, O Paradise, and Enter Dark Stranger.

Deborah Zemke is the author and/or Illustrator of more than forty children’s books including the popular Doodles at Dinner series, Deborah illustrated The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake by Robin Newman, named a Best Middle-Grade Book of 2015 by Kirkus Reviews.