Alicia Keys is a sixteen-time Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, actress, activist, and entrepreneur who has sold over 90 million records worldwide. Billboard has ranked her as the number one R&B/hip-hop artist of the 2000s. Her memoir, More Myself, was a New York Times bestseller. She worked on the development for Hell's Kitchen for thirteen years.

Lise Funderburg is a writer and editor based in Philadelphia. She studied at Reed College and the Columbia University School of Journalism, and her work has appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, Threepenny Review, Philadelphia Inquirer, National Geographic, and Salon. She is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and teaches at the Paris Writers' Workshop.