First Year Experience

Russell Banks

Acclaimed Author of Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter

Michael Chabon

Pulitzer Prize-winning Novelist, Author of
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Billy Collins

United States Poet Laureate (2001–2003)

Firoozeh Dumas

Bestselling Author of Funny in Farsi:
A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America

& Laughing Without an Accent

Anne Fadiman

Award-winning Writer, Essayist, Editor, and Author of
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

Alexandra Fuller

Award-winning Author Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood

Elizabeth Kolbert

Journalist and Author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe:
Man, Nature and Climate Change

Barry Lopez

National Book Award Winner, Author of Arctic Dreams

Anchee Min

Bestselling Memoirist and Novelist, Author of Red Azalea and Becoming Madame Mao

Naomi Shihab Nye

Award-winning Palestinian-American Poet,
Writer, Anthologist, and Educator

Michael Pollan

Bestselling Author & Journalist
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
& The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Luis J. Rodriguez

Award-winning Poet, Activist, and Bestselling Author
Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.

Mark Salzman

Acclaimed Author of Iron & Silk, Lying Awake,
and True Notebooks

Dr. Robert Sapolsky

Science and Nature Writer, Biologist and Neuroscientist, and Stress Expert

Marjane Satrapi

Bestselling Artist/Illustrator and Filmmaker,
Author of Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

Eric Schlosser

Bestselling Author of Fast Food Nation & Reefer Madness

Art Spiegelman

Pulitzer Prize-winning Artist/Illustrator,
Author of MAUS, In the Shadow of No Towers, & Breakdowns

Amy Tan

Bestselling Author of The Joy Luck Club and
Saving Fish From Drowning

Sarah Vowell

Bestselling Author of
The Wordy Shipmates & Assassination Vacation

Terry Tempest Williams

Conservationist, Advocate for Free Speech,
Author of Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family & Place
and Finding Beauty in a Broken World