2011 National Book Festival Podcast

Hoda Kotb has been co-anchor with Kathie Lee Gifford of the fourth hour of "Today" since 2007. She has also been a "Dateline NBC" correspondent since April 1998 and the host of the weekly syndicated series "Your Total Health" since September 2004. In her nine years at NBC, Kotb has covered a wide variety of domestic and international stories. Her book "Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer and Kathie Lee" (Simon & Schuster) includes a personal account of her bout with breast cancer in 2007 (she is now cancer-free), which was documented on "Today."

Culinary historian Jessica B. Harris is an authority on the culinary culture of the African diaspora. She has shared her knowledge with audiences at the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Natural History in New York and the California Academy of Sciences. Her 11th book is "High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America (Bloomsbury). Harris has written for most of the major food magazines, including Gourmet, Food & Wine, Cooking Light, Saveur and Eating Well, and she is a contributing editor at Saveur and American Legacy.

"Waiting to Exhale" garnered national attention and a rabid following for its author, Terry McMillan, in 1992; it became a film in 1995. The following year, "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" was also a smash hit that told the tale of a woman who takes a trip to Jamaica and meets a man half her age. "Getting to Happy" (Viking) is the long-awaited sequel to "Exhale." It reunites its predecessor's characters – now in their 50s – who live in Phoenix and are struggling with their midlife crises.

Adam Goodheart is a historian, journalist and critic whose new book is the New York Times best-selling and critically praised "1861: The Civil War Awakening" (Knopf). He has contributed frequent essays and reviews to The New York Times (where he also served as deputy editor of the Op-Ed page), National Geographic, Smithsonian and The Atlantic, among many other publications. At Washington College, Goodheart is the director of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, which fosters innovative approaches to history and culture through writing fellowships, prizes, public events, teacher seminars and student programs.

Eric Jerome Dickey has been a software engineer, an actor and a stand-up comedian. Then he discovered that writing was what he liked to do best. He started writing poetry and short stories, but he wasn't satisfied with short-form writing: "I'd set out to do a 10-page story and it would go on for 300 pages," he said. Since then, his work has landed many times on the best-seller lists of the New York Times, Essence and USA Today. His latest novel is "Tempted by Trouble" (NAL Trade).

Julianne Moore is a four-time Academy Award-nominated actress and the New York Times best-selling author of three books about Freckleface Strawberry, a character inspired by her own childhood experiences. She is also an avid reader, a literacy advocate and the mother of two young readers.

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has called David McCullough the "citizen chronicler" for his meticulously researched and beautifully written historical books, such as the Pulitzer Prize winners "Truman" and "John Adams," the latter of which became an Emmy Award-winning miniseries on HBO. He is also a two-time winner of the National Book Award, for "The Path Between the Seas" and "Mornings on Horseback." His newest book is "The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris" (Simon & Schuster). McCullough has also received the National Book Foundation Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Award, the National Humanities Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The author of more than a dozen works of fiction, Russell Banks' newest novel is "Lost Memory of Skin" (Ecco). His work has been translated into more than 20 languages, and two of his novels have been adapted into award-winning films: "The Sweet Hereafter" and "Affliction." His novel "Cloudsplitter" depicts the fictionalized journey of abolitionist John Brown. Banks has written poems, essays and stories for The Boston Globe, The New York Times Book Review and Harper's, among other publications. His novel "The Darling" will be directed by Martin Scorsese and star Cate Blanchett.

Jennifer Egan is the author of "The Invisible Circus," a novel that became a feature film starring Cameron Diaz in 2001; "Look at Me," a finalist for the National Book Award in fiction; and "The Keep," which was a national best-seller. Her nonfiction articles appear frequently in The New York Times Magazine. Her 2002 cover story on homeless children received the Carroll Kowal Journalism Award. Her most recent novel is "A Visit from the Goon Squad" (Knopf), which won the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize.