Walter Mosley is one of the most versatile and admiredwriters in America. He is the author of more than sixty critically acclaimedbooks that cover a wide range of ideas, genres, and forms including fiction(literary, mystery, and science fiction), political monographs, writing guides including Elements of Fiction a memoir in paintings, and a young adult novel called 47. His work has been translated into twenty-five languages. From a collection of short stories, The Awkward Black Man ,to his daring novel John Woman , which explored deconstructionisthistory, and his standalone crime novel Down the River and Unto theSea , which won an Edgar Award for Best Novel, the rich storylines thatMosley has created and deepened the understanding and appreciation of Blacklife in the United States. He has introduced an indelible cast of characters intothe American canon starting with his first novel, Devil in a Blue Dress ,which brought Easy Rawlins, his private detective in postwar Los Angeles and hisfriends Jackson Blue and Raymond "Mouse" Alexander into reader''s lives. Mosley hasexplored both large issues and intimate realities through the lens of characterslike the Black philosopher Socrates Fortlow; the elder suffering from Alzheimer''s,Ptolemy Grey; the bluesman R L; the boxer and New York private investigator LeonidMcGill; Debbie Dare, the porn starof Debbie Doesn''t Do It Anymore ; andTempest Landry and his struggling angel, among others. Mosley has also written and staged several plays including TheFall of Heaven , based on his Tempest Landry stories and directed by theacclaimed director Marion McClinton. Several of his books have been adapted forfilm and television including Devil in a Blue Dress (starring DenzelWashington, Don Cheadle and Jennifer Beals) and the HBO production of AlwaysOutnumbered (starring Laurence Fishburne and Natalie Cole).

His shortfiction has been widely published, and his nonfiction - long form essays and op-eds-haveappeared in the New York Times , and The Nation among other publications.He is also a writer and executive producer on the John singleton FX series, "Snowfall." Concerned by the lack of diversity in all levels ofpublishing, Mosley established The Publishing Certificate Program with the CityUniversity of New York to bring together book professionals and students hailingfrom a wide range of racial, ethnic and economic communities for courses,internships, and job opportunities. In 2013, Mosley was inducted into the NewYork State Writers Hall of Fame, and he is the winner of numerous awards, includinga O. Henry Award, TheMystery Writers of America''s Grand Master Award, a Grammy, several NAACP Image awards, and PEN America''s Lifetime Achievement Award. In2020, he was named the recipient of the Robert Krisch Award for lifetimeachievement from Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Born and raised inLos Angeles, Mosley now lives in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. John Jennings is a professor, author, graphic novelist,curator, Harvard Fellow, New York Times Bestseller, 2018 Eisner Winner, andall-around champion of Black culture.

As Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the Universityat the University of California at Riverside (UCR), Jennings examines the visualculture of race in various media forms including film, illustrated fiction, andcomings and graphic novels. He is also the director of Abrams ComicArts imprintMegascope, which publishes graphic novels focused on the experiences of peopleof color. His research interests include the visual culture of Hip Hop, Afrofuturismandpolitics, Visual Literacy, Horror, and the EthnoGothic, and SpeculativeDesign and its applications to visual rhetoric. Jennings is co-editor of the 2016 Eisner Award-winnegcollection The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comicsand Sequential Art (Rutgers) and co-founder/organizer of the The SchomburgCenter''s Black Comic Book Festival in Harlem. He is co-founder and organizer ofthe MLK NorCal''s BlackComix Arts Festival in San Francisco and SOL-CON: TheBrown and Black Comix Expo and The Ohio State University. ".