School of Humanities

Victor LaValle is the author of one short story collection, five novels, two novellas, and two comic books. His most recent novel, Lone Women (2023), was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize and the Locus Award, was longlisted for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, and was named a best book of the year by, among other places, Time, NPR, and the New York Times Book Review. His novella The Ballad of Black Tom (2016) won the Shirley Jackson Award and the British Fantasy Award and was a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Awards. His novel The Changeling (2017) has been adapted for Apple TV+, while he himself adapted his novel The Devil in Silver (2012) for AMC and served as its creator and showrunner. LaValle has been the recipient of numerous awards including the World Fantasy Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the American Book Award. He lives in the Bronx with his wife, the writer Emily Raboteau, and their kids. He serves as the Chair of the Graduate Writing Program at Columbia University.

Professor Elisheva Carlebach, Salo Wittmayer Baron Professor of Jewish History, Culture, and Society, specializes in the cultural, intellectual, and religious history of the Jews in Early Modern Europe. 

Dan Chiasson is the author of five books of poetry, including Bicentennial (2014) and The Math Campers (2020), and a book of literary criticism. His recently published book of nonfiction, Bernie for Burlington: The Rise of the People’s Politician, was named one of Lit Hub’s most anticipated books of 2026 and was described in the New Yorker as “revelatory.” A longtime contributor to the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books, Chiasson is the Lorraine Chao Wang Professor of English and Chair of the English Department at Wellesley College.