Robert Polito‘s books include the poetry collections Hollywood & God and Doubles, as well as A Reader’s Guide to James Merrill’s The Changing Light at Sandover and the Library of America editions of Kenneth Fearing, Manny Farber, and David Goodis. He received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson. He founded the graduate program in creative writing at the New School, and is President of the Poetry Foundation.
Role: Chair
Alan Taylor
Alan Taylor has published seven books, including William Cooper’s Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early Republic, which won the Pulitzer Prize for American history and the Bancroft and Beveridge prizes; The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution; The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies; and The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, which was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2013.
Geraldine Brooks
Geraldine Brooks won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel, March. A former foreign correspondent, she has reported from more than fifteen countries and wrote two works of nonfiction before turning to novels, which include Year of Wonders, People of the Book, and Caleb’s Crossing. Born and raised in Sydney, she now lives on Martha’s Vineyard
Jacqueline Woodson
Jacqueline Woodson is the 2014 National Book Award Winner for Young People’s Literature for her New York Times bestselling memoir Brown Girl Dreaming, which was also a recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor Award, the NAACP Image Award, and the Sibert Honor Award. The Poetry Foundation recently named Woodson the Young People’s Poet Laureate. She is the author of more than two dozen award-winning books for young adults, middle graders, and children; among her many accolades, she is a four-time Newbery Honor winner, a three-time National Book Award Finalist, and a two-time Coretta Scott King Award winner. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.