Hafizah Augustus Geter is a Nigerian-American poet, writer, and literary agent born in Zaria, Nigeria, and raised in Akron, Ohio, and Columbia, South Carolina. Her debut memoir, The Black Period: On Personhood, Race & Origin, won the 2023 PEN Open Book Award and the 2023 Lambda Literary Award for Nonfiction.

Tony is a Black, gay spoken word artist, poet, and Hip-Hop educator. His debut, How the Boogeyman Became a Poet, is a powerful YA memoir in verse, tracing his journey from being a closeted gay Black teen battling poverty, racism, and homophobia to becoming an openly gay first-generation college student who finds freedom in poetry. "What a life-affirming masterpiece." - Jason Reynolds, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“I wish there were more opportunities to read queer characters outside the context of hardship or trauma around their queerness. I’m interested in the more day-to-day movement of queerness: ‘I happen to be queer, and I’m doing this.’”

Florida-native and novelist Kristen Arnett is the author of With Teeth: A Novel and the NYT bestselling debut novel Mostly Dead Things which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in fiction. Her latest novel Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One (Riverhead Books, 2025) explores the themes of humor and community.

Douglas Boin is a historian, teacher, and author. His books include Coming Out Christian in the Roman World, A Social and Cultural History of Late Antiquity, and Alaric the Goth: An Outsider’s History of the Fall of Rome, which was named by The Economist one of the best books of 2020. In his talks, Doug focuses on how growing up gay in a Catholic family shaped his work as a writer and as a historian.