Martha Frankel is a writer. It’s the only job she’s ever had unless you count gas station clown. Oh, and waitress. She killed at both those jobs. She started her writing career doing celebrity profiles for magazines. What fun! Her memoir, Hats and Eyeglasses, delves into her families obsession with gambling. She is the executive director of Woodstock Bookfest.

Ada Calhoun is the New York Times–bestselling author of Also a Poet–named one of the Best Books of 2022 by the New York Times (critic Alexandra Jacobs called it her Memoir of the Year), and NPR’s Maureen Corrigan. Prior books include Why We Can’t Sleep, St. Marks Is Dead, and Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give.

Rebecca Carroll is a writer, cultural critic, podcast host, and editor-at-large for The Meteor media collective. She has been called a “cultural icon” by Trevor Noah, and her 2021 memoir, Surviving the White Gaze, was described as “gorgeous and powerful” by the New York Times.

Priscilla Gilman is the author of two memoirs, The Anti-Romantic Child and The Critic’s Daughter, and a former professor of English literature at Yale University and Vassar College. The Anti-Romantic Child received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Booklist, was selected as one the Best Books of 2011 by the Leonard Lopate Show and The Chicago Tribune and was one of five nominees for a Books for a Better Life Award for Best First Book. Nick Hornby calls The Critic’s Daughter, “beautiful: honest, raw, careful, soulful, brave and incredibly readable,” and Kiese Laymon declares, “The Critic’s Daughter is an exquisite and rare example of how the memoir needs as much inventiveness in scope and form as our most lush fiction and poetry…I’ve read few books in my life as skillfully executed and willfully conceived as The Critic’s Daughter.” Gilman’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, O, the Oprah Magazine, and elsewhere. She lives in New York City.

Ann Hood is the author of the best-selling novels Somewhere Off The Coast of Maine, The Book That Matters Most, The Obituary Writer, and The Knitting Circle and the memoir Comfort: A Journey Through Grief. Her most recent book is the memoir, Fly Girl. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island, and New York City, with her husband, writer and chef Michael Ruhlman.

Courtney Maum is the author of five books, including the groundbreaking publishing guide that Vanity Fair recently named one of the ten best books for writers, Before and After the Book Deal, and the memoir, The Year of the Horses, chosen by The Today Show as the best read for mental health awareness. A writing coach, executive director of the nonprofit learning collaborative “The Cabins,” and educator, Courtney’s mission is to help people hold on to the joy of art-making in a culture obsessed with turning artists into brands. You can sign up for her publishing tips newsletter and online masterclasses at CourtneyMaum.com

Aileen Weintraub is an award-winning author, journalist, and editor. Her latest book Knocked Down: A High-Risk Memoir is about marriage, motherhood, and the risks we take. She has written health and parenting pieces for The Washington Post, Parents, NBC, AARP, Glamour, InStyle, and many other publications. She has also published over fifty children’s books including the middle-grade social justice book, We Got Game! 35 Female Athletes Who Changed the World, which was honored as A Mighty Girl’s Best Book of the Year, and the best-selling, Never Too Young: 50 Unstoppable Kids Who Made a Difference, a Parents’ Choice Award winner. She offers editing and consulting services for writers of all levels at WitchesofPitches.com and has created a series of articles on marketing and platform building for Writer’s Digest.

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