Katherine Lanpher and Melissa Bank
Until last year, Katherine Lanpher was the celebrated co-host of The Al Franken Show, the flagship talk show of Air America Radio. Her memoir, Leap Days: Chronicles of a Midlife Move, describes Lanpher's move from the Midwest to New York City to join Al Franken on his radio show. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly described the memoir as "poignant" and written with "unconcealed wonder," and Kirkus marveled at Lanpher's "startling insight." Prior to her career in broadcasting, Lanpher worked for 16 years as an award-winning columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, after which she became the host of Minnesota Public Radio's Midmorning show.
Melissa Bank is the author of the bestselling short fiction collection, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing. Her latest book, The Wonder Spot, is a collection of young women's coming-of-age stories that is "enthralling, engaging, and deserving of...notice," according to Entertainment Weekly. Bank has been called, "prodigiously talented" by both the San Francisco Chronicle and The Washington Post. She was the winner of the 1993 Nelson Algren Award for short fiction. Her work has been published in Zoetrope and The Chicago Tribune, and has been aired on Selected Shorts on NPR.