Max Byrd (’83, ’96-’13, ’15, ’18) is the author of detective novels and historical novels, and several scholarly books about 18th-century literature. A former teacher at Yale and the University of California, Davis, Byrd is a winner of the Shamus Award for detective fiction, and the former President of the Board of the Community of Writers. He writes often for the New York Times Book Review and other journals. His more recent novels are The Sixth Conspirator and Pont Neuf.
2018 Special Guests
Mo Gawdat is the Chief Business Officer for Google [X], a serial entrepreneur and author of Solve for Happy: Engineering Your Path to Joy (2017). Through his 12-year research on the topic of happiness, he created an algorithm and a repeatable, well-engineered model to reach a state of uninterrupted happiness regardless of the circumstances of life. He works in Google’s innovation arm, Google [X] where he leads the business strategy, planning, sales, business development and partnerships. Alongside his career, he remains a serial entrepreneur who has cofounded more than 20 businesses in fields such as health and fitness, food and beverage, and real estate. www.solveforhappy.com
Michelle Latiolais is the author of the novel, Even Now, which received the Gold Medal for Fiction from the Commonwealth Club of California. Her second novel, A Proper Knowledge, was published by Bellevue Literary Press, as was Widow, a collection of stories, involutions and essays. Her novel She was released in 2016 by W.W. Norton & Company. Recent work is forthcoming in Mississippi Review in 2025.
Photo Credit: Brett Hall Jones
Gabriel Tallent is the author of the novel, My Absolute Darling, a New York Times bestseller, published in August 2017 by Riverhead Books. He was born in New Mexico and raised on the Mendocino coast by two mothers. He received his BA from Willamette University with a focus on eighteenth-century literature. After graduation he spent two seasons leading youth trail crews in the backcountry of the Pacific Northwest. His stories have been published in Narrative and in the St. Petersburg Review. He lives in Salt Lake City. Instagram @gabriel_tallent.
Photo credit: Alex Adams Photography
Amy Tan’s novels are The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Saving Fish from Drowning, and Valley of Amazement. She is the author of two memoirs, The Opposite of Fate and Where the Past Begins; and two children’s books, The Moon Lady and Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat. Tan served as co-producer and co-screenwriter for the film adaptation of The Joy Luck Club and creative consultant for the PBS television series, Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat. She wrote the libretto for the opera The Bonesetter’s Daughter and is the subject of the American Masters documentary Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir. Tan is an instructor of a MasterClass on Fiction, Memory, and Imagination. She is a recipient of the National Humanities Medal and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her most recent book, The Backyard Bird Chronicles (Knopf, April 2024) marks her debut as a nature journalist and bird artist. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Community of Writers.