Carolyn Gold Heilbrun (January 13, 1926 in East Orange, New Jersey – October 9, 2003 in New York City) was an American academic and prolific feminist author of both important academic studies and popular mystery novels under the pen name of Amanda Cross.

Heilbrun attended graduate school in English literature at Columbia University, receiving her M.A. in 1951 and Ph.D in 1959.

Among her most important mentors were Columbia professors Jacques Barzun and Lionel Trilling, while Clifton Fadiman was an important inspiration: she wrote about these three in her final non-fiction work, When Men Were the Only Models We Had: My Teachers Barzun, Fadiman, Trilling (2002).

Heilbrun taught English at Columbia for more than three decades (1960-1993). She was the first woman to receive tenure in Columbia's English department (not unlike Trilling, who had become the first tenured Jew in that department less than two decades earlier).

Cornelia Otis Skinner (May 30, 1899 – July 9, 1979) was an American author and actress.

Skinner was the daughter of the actor Otis Skinner and his wife Maud (Durbin) Skinner. After attending the all-girls' Baldwin School and Bryn Mawr College (1918–1919) and studying theatre at the Sorbonne in Paris, she began her career on the stage in 1921.

She appeared in several plays before embarking on a tour of the United States from 1926 to 1929 in a one-woman performance of short character sketches she herself wrote. She wrote numerous short humorous pieces for publications like The New Yorker.

These pieces were eventually compiled into a series of books, including Nuts in May, Dithers and Jitters, Excuse It Please!, and The Ape In Me, among others.

Camryn Manheim (born March 8, 1961) is an American actress known primarily for her roles as attorney Ellenor Frutt on ABC's The Practice and Delia Banks on CBS's Ghost Whisperer and as Elvis Presley's mother in the 2005 mini-series Elvis.

Manheim was born Debra Frances Manheim in Caldwell, New Jersey, but grew up in Peoria, Illinois.

Suheir Hammad (born October 25, 1973) is a Palestinian-American poet, author and political activist. She was born in Amman, Jordan.

Her parents were Palestinian refugees who immigrated along with their daughter to Brooklyn, New York City when she was five years old. Her parents later moved to Staten Island.

As an adolescent Hammad was heavily influenced by Brooklyn's vibrant Hip-Hop scene.

She had also absorbed the stories her parents and grandparents had told her of life in their hometown of Lydda, before the 1948 Palestinian exodus, and of the suffering they endured afterward, first in the Gaza Strip and then in Jordan.

Alecia Beth Moore (born September 8, 1979), better known by her stage name Pink (stylized as P!nk), is an American contralto singer-songwriter, musician, acrobat, dancer and actress, who rose to fame in early 2000.

"Once you figure out what respect tastes like, it tastes better than attention. But you have to get there."