JOSHUA SMITH

American writer, humorist, and lecturer. Often called the "father of American literature," his novels are noted for their humor, strong narrative, and evocative descriptions of American life.

American novelist and short story writer, widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. His works captured the Jazz Age and the American Dream.

English novelist known for her six major novels which critique the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Her works are celebrated for their wit, social commentary, and timeless appeal.

English modernist writer and pioneering feminist. Her experimental narrative techniques and lyrical prose revolutionized the novel form and explored themes of consciousness, time, and identity.

Nelle Harper Lee (1926–2016) was an American author famed for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), a story on racial injustice in the Depression-era South, inspired by her childhood in Monroeville, Alabama, and her lawyer father, believed to be the model for Atticus Finch. A lifelong friend of Truman Capote, Lee moved to New York to write, became a literary sensation, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and published a second novel, Go Set a Watchman, in 2015, which was an early draft of her masterpiece, before her death in 2016.