Dear American performer bios

Regina Spector is Russian-born, American musician Regina Spektor is an internationally known, Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter. 

Susan Minot is the author of Monkeys, Lust & Other Stories, Folly, Evening, Rapture, a poetry collection Poems 4 A.M. and, most recently, Thirty Girls about children abducted by the LRA in Uganda and how women struggle to cope with trauma. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, O Henry Prize Stories, Granta. New York Times, McSweeney's and Vogue.  She wrote the screenplay for Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Stealing Beauty” and the film "Evening" was adapted from her novel.

Amanda Palmer is a performer, songwriter, and New York Times best selling author. She first came to prominence as the piano-playing songwriting half of the internationally acclaimed punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls.

John Forte is a Grammy-nominated recording artist, filmmaker and activist. First recognized for his work with multi-platinum hip hop group The Fugees, Forté's felony conviction and eventual Presidential commutation cemented Forté's commitment to reforming America's broken criminal justice system.” Forté has released several solo and collaborative projects to-date including, Music Supervisor Brooklyn D.A. (CBS/television), Created inaugural anthem for the Brooklyn Nets (NBA), The Russian Winter (feature film/documentary), Schools Not Prisons Tour.

A.M. Homes is the author of numerous books including, May We Be Forgiven, and The Mistress’s Daughter and teaches at Princeton University.

Anand Giridharadas is a former columnist and correspondent for The New York Times. Most recently, he is the author of The True America: Murder and Mercy in Texas, about a Muslim immigrant’s campaign to spare the life of the Death Row sentenced white supremacist who tried to kill him.  The book has been optioned to be directed Kathryn Bigelow.  In 2011, he published India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation’s Remaking, about returning to the India his parents left.

 

Maria Popova is a reader and a writer, and writes about what she reads on Brain Pickings (brainpickings.org), which is included in the Library of Congress archive of culturally valuable materials. She has also written for The New York Times, Wired UK, and The Atlantic, among others, and is an MIT Fellow. 

 

Julia Bullock is a versatile soprano. This season, she debuts with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Baltimore Symphony. She also appears as Anne Trulove in The Rake's Progress at The Festival International in Aix-en-Provence and Kitty Oppenheimer in the BBC Symphony’s production and recording of Dr. Atomic, conducted by John Adams.  She has appeared​ as a soloist with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic,​ New World Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and San Francisco Symphony. 

Ekow Yankah is a law professor whose work focuses on questions of criminal and political theory and punishment.  He has written for publications spanning The New York Times, The New Yorker and The Huffington Post, among others and has been a regular commentator on criminal law issues on television and radio including MSNBC, BBC International.

Mark Warren was raised and educated in southeast Texas, where he worked in Democratic politics, until he realized how that whole situation was playing out and relocated to New York City, where he worked in magazines - first Harper's, then Esquire, where he would stay for 28 years, 19 of them as executive editor. In that time, he had the privilege to work with some of the greatest writers ever. And he wrote a little, too.

Matthieu Aikins is the Schell Fellow at the Nation Institute. He has been reporting from South Asia and the Middle East since 2008. His writing has appeared in US, Canadian, British, and French publications such as Harper's Magazine, Rolling Stone, the New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, and The Atlantic among others.