Russell Banks is president of an organization called the International Parliament of Writers (IPW) offering refuge to exiled writers, helping them publish their work.

Amy Bloom’s first book of nonfiction, Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops, and Hermaphrodites with Attitude tells the stories of crossdressers, transsexuals, and hermaphrodites, the issues they face and similarities they have.

Eric Drooker's paintings are seen on covers of the New Yorker, The Progressive, The Village Voice and numerous other magazines. He is the author of Flood! A Novel in Pictures and Blood Song: A Silent Ballad.

Alice Sebold is the author of several works of fiction and memoir, including Lucky, an account of her rape at the age of 18, The Lovely Bones and The Almost Moon.

In 1953, then professor and writer Lawrence Ferlinghetti started City Lights Books, a center of beatnik culture and one of the most vibrant bookstores and publishing companies in the world.

Pico Iyer is a journalist for The New York Times, essayist for Time and Harpers, an acclaimed novelist, traveler and biographer who has written about the Dalai Lama for over 30 years.