Keith McNally, one of the defining figures of the New York City restaurant scene since the 1980s, is the founder of many iconic establishments, including Balthazar, Pastis, and Odeon. In 2016, at age 65, he suffered a massive stroke. In 2018, he attempted suicide but was rescued by his son. His new memoir is the New York Times bestseller, I Regret Almost Everything (2026), a candid, irreverent, unexpectedly hilarious and profoundly moving book. Tina Brown called it “a triumph,” and Bill Buford, “a frickin’ masterpiece.”

Eva Lesko Natiello, UAlbany alum, wrote a New York Times bestseller, The Memory Box (2014), a thriller about a suburban mom who Googles herself on a whim and is terrified by what she finds. Her new novel is The Dog Sitter (2026), about a woman, newly divorced and strapped for cash, who takes a job as a dog sitter, despite not being a dog person. Midwest Book Review called it, “a story about resilience, new beginnings, and finding your way when life refuses to follow your plans.”

Megan Nolan is an acclaimed Irish writer based in New York. Her newest novel is Ordinary Human Failings (2024), the story of a 10-year-old child suspected of a violent crime, and its impact on her reclusive family— Irish immigrants living in London. Named a “Book of the Year” by Vogue, The Guardian, and The Times (UK), the novel was also a finalist for the Jimmy Fallon Book Club. Her debut novel, Acts of Desperation (2021), a tale of love and obsession, became an international bestseller.

Judge Albert M. Rosenblatt, is the official Historian of the New York Courts. He retired from service as a judge of the state’s high court (the New York Court of Appeals). A graduate of UPenn and Harvard Law School, he is a judicial fellow at NYU Law School, where he teaches a seminar on New York Law. He is the author most recently of The Eight: The Lemmon Slave Case and the Fight for Freedom (SUNY Press, 2023), about the legal battles of eight enslaved New Yorkers in the mid-1800s.

Namwali Serpell, novelist and Harvard professor, is the author of the national bestseller, On Morrison (2026), an electrifying exploration of the work of former UAlbany Professor Toni Morrison —“a revelatory encounter with the Nobel laureate’s oeuvre” (NY Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice). On Morrison was named a “Best Book of the Year So Far” by the New York Times, New Yorker, and elsewhere. Toni Morrison (1931-2019) taught in the UAlbany English Department from 1984 to 1989, and wrote her masterpiece, Beloved (1987), while at UAlbany.

Rebecca van Laer, writer and NYS Summer Writers Institute alum, is the author of Cat (Object Lessons) (2025), a playful and tender meditation on cats and their people. From the stereotype of the 'crazy cat lady' to the joy of cat memes to the grief of pet loss, van Laer demonstrates that the cat-person relationship is free of the discipline and dependence required by parenting (and dog-parenting), creating a less hierarchical intimacy that offers a different model for love.

Sandra Weber is the author of John Brown in New York: The Man, His Family, and the Adirondack Landscape (2025), a new and intimate biography centered around Brown’s favorite place, North Elba, Essex County, NY. The intertwining story of sublime Adirondack scenery and racial justice reveals the poor pioneer farmer, family patriarch, preacher, and devoted ally of black freedom and equality. The principles and moral fiber exhibited by the everyday actions of John Brown and his family in the Adirondacks resonate with their sacrifices for the cause of freedom. Weber’s follow-up book, John Brown Farm: From Abolitionist Vision to Memorial Site (2026), traces Brown’s legacy as each generation comes to this sacred ground to wrestle with questions of universal freedom, civil rights, public monuments, and historical truth-telling.

Ashanti Williams is a farmer-activist and educator who is featured in Nancy Matsumoto’s new book, Reaping What She Sows: How Women Are Rebuilding Our Broken Food System (2025). Raised in the Bronx, Williams is the founder of Black Yard Farm Collective, a 44-acre farm in rural Argyle, New York focused on regenerative agriculture, food sovereignty, and Black belonging in the out-of-doors. She finds inspiration in the life of her father, a Bronx urban farmer, and her grandfather, who sharecropped as a child in the South.