Roxane Gay is an author and cultural critic whose writing is unmatched and widely revered. Her work garners international acclaim for its reflective, no-holds-barred exploration of feminism and social criticism. With a deft eye on modern culture, she brilliantly critiques its ebb and flow with both wit and ferocity.

Her collection of essays, Bad Feminist, is considered the quintessential exploration of modern feminism. NPR named it one of the best books of the year and Salon declared the book “trailblazing.” Her powerful debut novel,

Tom Llamas has worked at NBC and ABC, where he was the Weekend Anchor. He earned both Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Awards for groundbreaking stories including Hurricane Sandy, the trial of the Boston Marathon Bomber, and his first love, politics.

Llamas is the only TV journalist ever embedded with the Coast Guard during a human smuggling interdiction at sea. The Emmy award-winning story documented how Cuban refugees are smuggled into the U.S. and the Coast Guard’s mission to intercept these vessels.