AUTHORS
Lawrence Burney
A journalist and critic, Burney is the founder of True Laurels, a media platform dedicated to highlighting the most captivating music and culture in the Baltimore/DMV area. He has worked as a music columnist for The Washington Post, a senior editor at The Fader magazine, and a staff writer at VICE.
Forthcoming:
No Sense In Wishing (Atria, 2025)
K. Austin Collins
A film critic, Collins has held staff positions at Vanity Fair, The Ringer, and Rolling Stone, where he most recently served as the magazine's chief film critic. His work has also appeared in the New York Times and The New Yorker, where he regularly contributes crossword puzzles, as well as the Los Angeles Review of Books, Reverse Shot, and the Brooklyn Rail.
Forthcoming:
Black Cop (Doubleday, 2026)
Jordan Ritter Conn
Journalist and staff writer for The Ringer, Conn is a two-time finalist for the Livingston Award. He previously worked for Grantland and ESPN: The Magazine and has written for The New York Times and Sports Illustrated. His first book, The Road From Raqqa, was the non-fiction runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in 2021.
Published:
The Road From Raqqa: A Story of Brotherhood, Borders, and Belonging (Ballantine, 2020)
Forthcoming:
American Man (Grand Central, 2025)
Joe Coscarelli
A culture reporter for The New York Times, Coscarelli focuses on pop music and emerging artists. He previously worked at New York magazine and The Village Voice.
Published:
Rap Capital: An Atlanta Story (Simon & Schuster, 2022)
Kate Crane
A writer and editor, Crane has worked with The Wall Street Journal, Radar, Inc., Men's Journal, Hearst, OZY, and Time Out New York.
Forthcoming:
Whatever Happened to Eddy Crane (Hanover Square Press, 2025)
Oline Eaton
A scholar of biographical writing and a writer of creative nonfiction, in her work, Eaton focuses on celebrity lives, gender deviance, and representations of trauma. She teaches first year writing as a non-tenure track lecturer at Howard University, and holds a PhD in English Literature from King's College London.
Published:
Finding Jackie: A Life Reinvented (Diversion Books, 2023)
S. H. Fernando Jr.
A journalist and author of The New Beats: Exploring the Music, Culture, and Attitudes of Hip-Hop, Fernando Jr. has been published in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, Vibe, and The Source. He received his M.A. from the Columbia School of Journalism.
Published:
From the Streets of Shaolin: The Wu-Tang Saga (Hachette Books, 2021)
Forthcoming:
The Chronicles of Doom (Astra House, 2024)
Nathan Grayson
A journalist and reporter for The Washington Post, Grayson focuses on video game culture. He was previously a staff writer for Kotaku, and his work has been featured in PC Gamer, IGN, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
Forthcoming:
Streamers: Fame, Fortune, and Burnout Behind the Screen (Atria, 2025)
Nick Greene
A contributing writer for Slate, Greene covers sports and culture. His writing has been featured in Vice, The Village Voice, Chicago Magazine, and Men’s Health.
Published:
How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius (Abrams Press, 2021)
Michael Hayes
A criminal justice journalist, Hayes' writing has appeared in ProPublica, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Gothamist, and The Appeal. In 2019, he was a finalist for both the Livingston Award for Young Journalists and the Deadline Club Public Service Award for his reporting on the NYPD.
Published:
The Secret Files: Bill De Blasio, the NYPD, and the Broken Promises of Police Reform (Kingston Imperial, 2023)
Alan Henry
A writer and digital strategist, Henry is the service editor at Wired. He was previously the smarter living editor at The New York Times and editor in chief of Lifehacker.
Published:
Seen, Heard, and Paid: The New Work Rules for the Marginalized (Rodale Books, 2022)
Shanita Hubbard
Journalist and NABJ Chair of the Freelance Task Force, Hubbard has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Pitchfork, ESSENCE, and Elle.
Published:
Ride-Or-Die: A Feminist Manifesto for the Well-Being of Black Women (Hachette Books, 2022)
Interview (magazine)
A monthly magazine, Interview covers film, fashion, art, music, and culture. Interview has received the Ellie Award for General Excellence and has been nominated for 14 Ellie Awards and 7 Webby Awards.
Published:
Interview: 50 Years (Assouline, 2019)
Claude Johnson
Historian and founder of The Black Fives Foundation, Johnson's work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and NPR.
Published:
The Black Fives: The Epic Story of Basketball’s Forgotten Era (Abrams Press, 2022)
Sam Kashner
An editor-at-large at Air Mail, Kashner was previously a contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine. He is the author of the acclaimed memoir When I Was Cool: My Life at the Jack Kerouac School and coauthor of the recent New York Times bestsellers The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters: The Tragic and Glamorous Lives of Jackie and Lee and Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century.
Gerrick D. Kennedy
A cultural critic and journalist, Kennedy’s writing has appeared in GQ, WSJ. Magazine, NPR Music, Playboy, Teen Vogue, and Shondaland. He previously worked as a staff writer for The Los Angeles Times.
Published:
Parental Discretion is Advised: The Rise of N.W.A and the Dawn of Gangsta Rap (Atria, 2017)
Didn’t We Almost Have it All: In Defense of Whitney Houston (Abrams Press, 2022)
John J. Lennon
An incarcerated journalist and contributing editor at Esquire, John J. Lennon's work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, Sports Illustrated, New York Magazine, and the 2019 Best American Magazine Writing. He was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in feature writing.
Forthcoming:
The Tragedy of True Crime (Celadon Books, 2024)
Marcus J. Moore
Journalist, music critic, and Senior Editor for Bandcamp Daily, Moore’s writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Billboard, The Nation, NPR, and Pitchfork.
Published:
The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America (Atria, 2020)
Forthcoming:
High and Rising (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2024)
Austin Moorhead
A writer and reporter, Moorhead has worked for Boston Consulting Group, TA Associates, and for research companies in the San Francisco area.
Published:
Young Guns: Obsession, Overwatch, and the Future of Gaming (Hachette Books, 2020)
Adam Nayman
A critic, lecturer, and author, Nayman writes for the Ringer, Reverse Shot, The New Yorker, and Sight and Sound. He teaches cinema studies at the University of Toronto and has written several books on film, including It Doesn’t Suck: Showgirls and illustrated critical monographs on the Coen brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson, and David Fincher.
Forthcoming:
Title to be revealed (Simon & Schuster, 2025)
Sheldon Pearce
A journalist and music writer for The New Yorker, Pearce's writing has been featured in The Guardian, Rolling Stone, NPR, VICE, Spin, and Complex. He was previously a contributing writer for Pitchfork.
Published:
Changes: An Oral History of Tupac Shakur (Simon & Schuster, 2021)
Tef Poe
A 2018 Nasir Jones Fellow at Harvard University and recording artist, Tef Poe has been featured in TIME, VICE, XXL, Billboard, Rolling Stone, Atlanta Black Star, and The Source.
Forthcoming:
Rebel to America (W. W. Norton, 2024)
David Polfeldt
Managing director of Scandinavia's largest video game studio Massive Entertainment, Polfeldt has developed video games for marquee game franchises including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy’s The Division.
Published:
The Dream Architects: Adventures in the Video Game Industry (Grand Central, 2020)
A. J. Poots
A nonfiction writer, Poots studied Ancient History at the University of Manchester and Magdalen College, Oxford.
Published:
The Strangers’ House: Writing Northern Ireland (Twelve, 2023)
Casey Rae
A music industry commentator and critic, Rae is the Director of Music Licensing for Sirius XM and has written for The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Billboard, and the Washington Post.
Published:
William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock 'n' Roll (University of Texas Press, 2019)
Forthcoming:
The Zen of the Dead: The Grateful Dead and the American Pursuit of Enlightenment (Oxford University Press, 2025)
Nancy Schoenberger
A professor of English and Creative Writing at the College of William and Mary, Schoenberger is the author of several books, including New York Times Bestsellers The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters: The Tragic and Glamorous Lives of Jackie and Lee and Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century with Sam Kashner, and Wayne and Ford: The Films, the Friendship, and the Forging of an American Hero.
Published:
Blanche: The Life and Times of Tennessee Williams’s Greatest Creation (Harper, 2023)
Neil Shah
Pop-music reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Shah writes about music and entertainment from the Journal’s New York bureau.
Forthcoming:
All of the Lights (Doubleday, 2025)
Ryan Schreiber
Founder of Pitchfork Media, Schreiber served alternately as Pitchfork’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief from 1996 to 2019. He has twice been featured in Time magazine's annual Time 100 poll of the world's most influential people and holds an honorary arts doctorate from Columbia College Chicago.
Forthcoming:
Weird Era (MCD/FSG, 2025)
Shawn Setaro
A music journalist and reporter for Complex, Setaro's writing has been featured in The Atlantic, Vibe, The Source, GQ, and Forbes. He also hosted The Cipher, a podcast for which he interviewed 250 legendary figures in hip-hop.
Published:
Dummy Boy (Kingston Imperial, 2021)
Vikki Tobak
A culture journalist, curator, and producer, Tobak's work has been featured in Complex, Rolling Stone, The FADER, Mass Appeal, Paper, Vibe, i-D, and the Detroit News, among other publications. She is the author of Ice Cold: A Hip-Hop Jewelry History and Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop. She has lectured about music photography at American University, VOLTA New York, Photoville, the Chicago Cultural Center, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.
Forthcoming:
The Streets Win: 50 Years of Hip-Hop Greatness (Rizzoli, 2023)
Tyler Watamanuk
A writer and contributor for GQ, Watamanuk covers design and style. His writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Playboy, McSweeney's, and Vice.
Forthcoming:
Hyped: The Rise and Reign of Streetwear (Simon & Schuster, 2024)
Walt Williams
A writer and narrative designer, Williams has worked on video games such as Star Wars Battlefront II, Bioshock, Borderlands, Civilization, Mafia II, Evolve, and the genre-bending video game Spec Ops: The Line.
Published:
Significant Zero: Heroes, Villains, and the Fight for Art and Soul in Video Games (Atria, 2017)
Elizabeth Winder
A nonfiction writer and Pushcart-nominated poet, Winder is the author of Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953 and Marilyn in Manhattan: Her Year of Joy. Her work has been featured in Rolling Stone, Vogue, New York, Elle, Vanity Fair, and Chicago Review.
Published:
Parachute Women: Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, and the Women Behind the Rolling Stones (Hachette Books, 2023)