Ann Patchett is the author of novels, most recently the #1 New York Times bestselling Tom Lake, works of nonfiction, and children's books. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the PEN/Faulkner, the Women's Prize for Fiction in the UK, and the Book Sense Book of the Year. Her novel The Dutch House was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages, and Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.
President Biden awarded her the National Humanities Medal in recognition of her contributions to American culture. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is the owner of Parnassus Books.
HEIDI ROSS is a creative director and photographer whose work has been featured in group shows alongside William Klein, Richard Avedon, and Vivian Maier, as well as on album covers, book jackets, and in branding campaigns.
Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Vanity Fair Italia, Town & Country, Rolling Stone, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Business, NYLON, The Guardian, L'Officiel, FOCUS, Entrepreneur, and Interview. Her first solo exhibition, Ilk: Similars 2004-2016, opened at Third Man Records in Nashville in April 2016. She lives in Nashville. Heidiross.com.
JON MEACHAM received the Pulitzer Prize for his 2008 biography of Andrew Jackson, American Lion.
He is also the author of the New York Times bestsellers Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George H. W. Bush, American Gospel, and Franklin and Winston. Meacham, who teaches at Vanderbilt University, is a fellow of the Society of American Historians. He lives in Nashville with his wife and children.