Laurie Anderson, born in Glen Ellyn, Illinois in 1947, is a multimedia artist, musician, and performer. She rose to international fame with O Superman (1981) and has released experimental albums such as Big Science, Mister Heartbreak, and Landfall (with Kronos Quartet).
Siri Hustvedt, born in 1955 in Northfield, Minnesota, is a novelist and essayist. Her fiction includes What I Loved (2003), The Sorrows of an American (2008), The Blazing World (2014), and several essay collections.
Garth Risk Hallberg, born in Louisiana in 1978, debuted with A Field Guide to the North American Family (2007) and achieved international recognition with City on Fire (2015), a multi-character novel set in 1970s New York City.
Joshua Cohen, born in Atlantic City in 1980, is a novelist, essayist, and critic. He is the author of Witz (2010), Book of Numbers (2015), and Moving Kings (2017).