Authors

Venerable Shih Chao-hwei of Taiwan is a Buddhist monastic, social activist, scholar, and author and recent winner of the Niwano Peace Prize. A leading advocate for animal rights, a vocal supporter of same-sex marriage, and a key figure in the Buddhist gender equality movement, Venerable Chao-hwei currently teaches at Hsuan Chuang University as a professor and is the founder of Hong Shih Buddhist College.

Philip Shenon was a reporter for The New York Times for more than twenty years. As a Washington correspondent, he covered the Pentagon, the Justice Department and the State Department. He lives in Washington, DC.

On behalf of Kathy Robbins, and The Robbins Office, Inc. 

Gaël Tchakaloff is a French journalist and author. She spent ten years working in television and print journalism, before becoming a full-time novelist. She has established herself as a singular author in her previous profiles of French political and public figures, notably Marine Le Pen and Alain Juppé. Just the Two of Us is her fourth book.

Mina Namous was born in 1984 in Paris to Algerian parents and spent her youth in Algeria. After getting her law degree, Mina worked as legal counsel in Algiers before eventually returning to Paris. From 2010 to 2014, Mina wrote a blog chronicling her days and nights in Algiers, which gained wide attention in the French and Algerian media, and a loyal readership.

Jamila Ahmed is a Pakistani-American writer and lawyer. Her writing focuses on the stories and histories of the South Asian and Muslim diaspora. She has previously been published in The Normal School, Briar Cliff Review, Slate, and The Harvard Journal of Law & Gender, among others. She is a graduate of Barnard College, where she studied medieval Islamic history, and Harvard Law School.

 

Represented by Stephanie Cabot

Rebecca Mead has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1997, where she has profiled many subjects and has contributed more than two hundred pieces to the Talk of the Town. She is the author of One Perfect Day and My Life in Middlemarch, a New York Times best seller. She has served as a McGraw Professor of Writing at Princeton University, and is the recipient of a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship. She lives in London.

On behalf of Kathy Robbins and The Robbins Office, Inc.

Mindy Misener is a fiction writer, essayist, and preacher. She is a graduate of Williams College (BA) and the University of Michigan (MFA). Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Common, Image, The Pinch, Plough, The Appalachian Review, and The Missouri Review, among other outlets. Previously a teacher of college writing, she is now enrolled at Yale Divinity School and plans to be ordained in the United Church of Christ.

Jina Krause-Vilmar is an executive, author, and former United Nations advisor, reimagining sustainable migration, economic inclusion, and women’s power. With two decades of global experience, she has advanced women’s economic security in conflict zones and fragile states—conducting research and training the humanitarian sector—and operates at the intersection of public policy, private sector engagement, and AI innovation. She is known for translating field-based insights into strategies that drive systems-level change.

Jina currently serves as Executive Director of the Family and Workers Fund, a philanthropic coalition advancing inclusive economic growth and reducing poverty. She also advises VOICE and Kizuna, women-led organizations supporting women and girls in crisis. Born and raised in Texas to an Indian immigrant family, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband, children, and Rottweiler.

Represented by Stephanie Cabot.

Roy G. Guzmán was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and grew up in Miami, Florida. Their debut collection, Catrachos, was published by Graywolf Press in 2020 and is currently a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry. Roy is a 2019 National Endowment for the Arts fellow and a 2017 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg poetry fellow. They are currently pursuing a PhD in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

Represented by Stephanie Cabot. 

David Grann is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z. Killers of the Flower Moon was a finalist for The National Book Award and won an Edgar Allan Poe Award. He is also the author of The White Darkness and the collection The Devil and Sherlock Holmes. Grann’s storytelling has garnered several honors, including a George Polk Award. He lives with his wife and children in New York.

On behalf of Kathy Robbins — The Robbins Office, Inc.