Brooke Averick is best known for her podcast, Brooke and Connor Make a Podcast, where she speaks candidly and humorously about her struggles with OCD, anxiety, and depression, as well as her latest celebrity crushes, all while trying to convince her co-host to appreciate the magic of musical theatre. She’s amassed a social media following of over 1.5M across numerous platforms. She studied early childhood education at Boston University and currently lives in Los Angeles with her two cats, Jonathan and Robert. Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It is her first novel.
@brookeaverick

Upasna Barath is a writer and performer who grew up in India and the U.S. She was a contributor to Rookie Mag and a Steppenwolf Theatre Literary Fellow. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Comedic Timing is her debut novella.
@upasnabarath

By day, Sanjana Basker is a doctoral student in counseling psychology studying sex, gender, intimacy, and health through a critical feminist lens. By night, she's still a doctoral student, but she's also a romance reader, reviewer, enthusiast, and the co-host of Radio 831: A Romance Podcast. You can find her work on TikTok and most other platforms @baskinsuns or on Substack at Scratch Paper.
@baskinsuns

Sophia Benoit is the author of Well, This Is Exhausting, writes regular columns in GQ and Bustle, and has written for WSJ, The Guardian, The Cut, Fatherly, Insider, Refinery29, Allure, PS, and more. Sophia doesn’t have an MFA from anywhere, and probably isn′t ever going to, much to the chagrin of her father. She is the host of the sex and relationships Ringer podcast None of My Business. Originally from St. Louis, she now lives in Los Angeles with her dog and her boyfriend (but usually only spouses make it into bios, so don’t worry about him).
@sgbenoit

Regina Black is a former litigator who writes about art, identity, and love in the modern South. Her debut, The Art of Scandal, was named a best romance of 2023 by Publishers Weekly, Amazon, Audible, and the Chicago Public Library. Her second novel, August Lane, was an instant USA Today bestseller and a New York Times Notable Book of 2025. She currently lives with her family in Arkansas.
@reginablackwrites

Hannah Brown is a television personality, lifestyle expert, and two-time New York Times bestselling author. Brown’s authenticity and charismatic personality have captivated her millions of followers, and she continues to inspire and empower others. Born and raised in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Brown currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.
@hannahbrown

Lauren Chan (she/her) is a model, writer, and actor who has championed greater inclusivity in fashion, particularly around size diversity, 2SLGBTQ+ voices, and AAPI representation. A former Glamour fashion editor, Chan went on to launch her fashion brand Henning, which was acquired by Universal Standard in 2023. She later made history as Sports Illustrated Swimsuit’s first lesbian cover star and has appeared as a host, correspondent, and guest judge across television, including Canada’s Drag Race, Project Runway, and Good Morning America. She made her acting debut in The Devil Wears Prada 2 and will join the cast of the upcoming season of Heated Rivalry. She is also currently working on her debut book.
@lcchan

Iman Hariri-Kia is a writer born and based in New York City. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and an award-winning journalist, she covers sex, relationships, identity, and adolescence. Her work has appeared in Vogue, The Cut, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, and more. She is the bestselling author of A Hundred Other Girls and The Most Famous Girl in the World. Her novel, Female Fantasy, was named a best book of the year by Elle, Kirkus Reviews, and Publisher’s Weekly. Her latest novel, Once in a Timeline, was published on Oct. 13 by Cosmo Reads.
@imanharirikia

Sarah MacLean is a New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today bestselling author, who wrote her first novel on a dare and never looked back. Translated into more than twenty-five languages, the books that make up “The MacLeaniverse” are beloved by readers worldwide. In addition to her novels, Sarah is a leading advocate for the romance genre, speaking widely on its place as a feminist text and a cultural bellwether. A former columnist for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Bustle, she is a founding board member of Authors Against Book Bans and the co-host of the weekly romance podcast Fated Mates. A product of Rhode Island summers and New England Storms, Sarah now lives in New York City.
@sarahmaclean

EJ Marcus is an actor who most recently starred in the indie feature Something You Should Know About Me. EJ will next be seen starring in the indie comedy Desert Flowers opposite Michaela Watkins, Tyler Posey, and Kyle Mooney. EJ was previously a staff writer and appeared on Rachel Sennott’s buzzy HBO series I Love LA. He can also be seen on Season 4 of the critically acclaimed HBO series Hacks. EJ is a true multi-hyphenate who uses TikTok to inhabit characters that show up in people's everyday lives. His social media has garnered recognition from the likes of Amy Poehler and Jeremy O. Harris, and he has been featured in Embedded and USA Today for his content. He has performed his one-person show, I Can Show You, to sold out audiences all over the U.S., including the Netflix is a Joke Festival and the New York Comedy Festival, and continues to regularly perform live in both LA and NYC. EJ is originally from Portland, Oregon, and currently lives in Los Angeles.
@ejhavingfun

Tyler McCall is the author of People Like You, coming Spring 2027, and the co-host of Radio 831: A Romance Podcast. Formerly the editor-in-chief of Fashionista, Tyler is now a freelance writer whose bylines have appeared in publications like Who What Wear, Marie Claire, Elle, and The Cut. She has read more books than should be humanly possible, spends most weekends putting her Alamo Drafthouse Season Pass to work, and considers herself to be an amateur Gossip Girl historian.
@eiffeltyler

Tressie McMillan Cottom is an award-winning author, sociologist, New York Times columnist, and cultural critic known for her incisive yet irreverent analyses of social problems and power. She authored two books: Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy and Thick: And Other Essays, with two forthcoming. She produced and co-directed the short documentary, “Power to the People, Y’all,” in 2026. Her love for romance novels grew from stealing every dangerous, nasty book she could from her mother and grandmother. 
@tressiemcphd

Casey McQuiston is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of queer romantic comedies. Their books have been honored by the Stonewall Book Awards, the Lambda Literary Awards, and the American Library Association, and their writing on life and literature has been published in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Bon Appétit. Their debut novel, Red, White and Royal Blue, was adapted into an Emmy-nominated film in 2023. When not writing love stories, they can be found staring at the nearest body of water or spending time with their beloved and always-hungry poodle mix, Pepper. Born and raised in Southern Louisiana, Casey now lives with their family in beautiful Queens, New York.
@casey.mcquiston

@nikkipaynebooks

Page Powars is the New York Times, USA Today, and #1 Indie bestselling author of books for both teenagers and adults. His work has been featured in Rolling Stone, People, Pride, and Elle, among others, and his work has been translated into over a dozen languages, if you include his fanfics. Page lives in Brooklyn with his partner.
@pagepowars

Alexandra Romanoff is a journalist, a cultural critic, and the author of the 831 Stories’s Big Fan series. She’s also written three novels (under Zan Romanoff), most recently LOOK, which O: The Oprah Magazine called “one of the LGBTQ books that will change the literary landscape.” She co-hosts the podcast On the Bleachers, which examines the intersection of sports and pop culture. Her favorite member of One Direction is Louis Tomlinson. She lives and writes in L.A.
@zanopticon

Julia Turshen is a New York Times bestselling cookbook author. She writes a twice-weekly newsletter, teaches online cooking classes, farms part time at Long Season Farm, and is a competitive powerlifter. The Washington Post called her latest cookbook, What Goes with What, “absolutely genius.” Julia lives in the Hudson Valley with her spouse Grace and their many pets. Down to Earth is her debut novella.
@turshen

Rebekah Weatherspoon is a bestselling and multi award-winning author who, after years of meddling in her friends’ love lives, turned to writing romance to get her fix. Raised in Southern New Hampshire, Rebekah now lives in Southern California where she will remain forever because she hates moving. With over twenty-five titles under her belt, Rebekah has covered subgenres including extremely sexy and equally dark romantic suspense, paranormal romance, steamy romantic comedies on horseback, and now young adult romance. With everything going on in the world, she still believes in love, the fluffier the better. You can find praise for Rebekah’s books in The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Book Riot, Oprah Magazine, TIME Magazine, and on a segment from The Today Show that is definitely pinned at the top of her Instagram page.
@rebekahweatherspoon

Nicola Yoon is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything, The Sun Is Also a Star, and Instructions for Dancing and the coauthor of Blackout, Whiteout, and Breakout. She also wrote the adult novel One of Our Kind. She is a National Book Award finalist, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book recipient, and a Coretta Scott King New Talent Award winner. Two of her novels have been made into major motion pictures. Nicola grew up in Jamaica and Brooklyn and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, novelist David Yoon, and their daughter.
@nicolayoon