Helen Hennessy Vendler (born April 30, 1933) is an American literary critic and is Porter University Professor Emerita at Harvard University. Helen Hennessy Vendler was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 30, 1933, to George Hennessy and Helen née Newman Hennessy.  She was the second of three children. Her parents encouraged her to read poems as a child.&nbsp;
Vendler's father taught Spanish, French, and Italian at a high school, while her mother had taught in a primary school before marriage. Vendler attended Emmanuel College over the Boston Girls' Latin School and Radcliffe College because her parents would not let her enroll in "secular education." She received an A. B. from Emmanuel.
Vendler was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, attending the Université catholique de Louvain from 1954 to 1955 for mathematics. But while traveling to the university, she decided that she would rather study English than math, and the Fulbright commission allowed her to switch her focus to literature. Upon returning to the U.S., Vendler took 12 undergraduate courses in English at Boston University in a year and 1956, entered Harvard University as a graduate student in English.&nbsp;
The department's chair told her within a week of entry that "we don't want any women here." At the same time, Perry Miller refused her entry in a seminar he led on Herman Melville despite viewing her as his "finest student," according to The New York Times. Other Harvard professors offered her more support, notably I. A. Richards. Vendler was offered a job teaching in Harvard's English department in 1959, making her the first woman the department offered a job as an instructor. She declined.
Vendler graduated with a Ph.D. in English and American literature the next year. She began teaching English at Cornell University in 1960, after her husband at the time, Zeno Vendler, moved to teach there. She left Cornell in 1963 and spent several years at various other institutions, including a year (1963-1964) teaching at Haverford College and Swarthmore College, two years (1964-1966) as an assistant professor at Boston University, and another two (1966-1968) as full professor.&nbsp;
Vendler spent a year as a Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Bordeaux. After this, she was Boston University's director of graduate studies in the English department from 1970 to 1975 and again from 1978 to 1979. Vendler has been a professor of English at Harvard University since 1984; from 1981 to 1984, she taught alternating semesters at Harvard and Boston University. She has said that she retained her affiliation with BU for several years to ensure that she wasn't "some little token person" at Harvard.&nbsp;
In 1985, Vendler was named the William R. Kenan Professor of English and American Literature and Language. From 1987 to 1992, she served as associate dean of arts and sciences. In 1990, she was appointed the A—Kingsley Porter University Professor,  the first woman to hold this position. In 1992, Vendler received an honorary Litt. D. from Bates College.
Vendler delivered the 2000 Warton Lecture on English Poetry. In 2004, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected her for the Jefferson Lecture, the federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Her lecture, "The Ocean, the Bird, and the Scholar," used poems by Wallace Stevens to argue for the role of the arts (as opposed to history and philosophy) in studying humanities. In 2006, The New York Times called Vendler "the leading poetry critic in America." It credited her work with helping "establish or secure the reputations" of poets, including Jorie Graham, Seamus Heaney, and Rita Dove.
Vendler has written books on Emily Dickinson, W. B. Yeats, Wallace Stevens, John Keats, and Seamus Heaney. She is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. She has also been a judge for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1974, 1976, 1978, 1986) and the National Book Award for Poetry (1972).&nbsp;

Helen

Clayton M. Christensen is the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. In addition to his most recent book, Competing Against Luck, he is the author of nine books, including several New York Times bestsellers The Innovator's Dilemma, The Innovator's Solution, Disrupting Class, and most recently 'How Will You Measure Your Life?'.&nbsp;
Christensen is the co-founder of Innosight, a growth-strategy consultancy; Rose Park Advisors, an investment firm; and the Christensen Institute, a non-profit think tank. In 2011 and 2013, he was named the world’s most influential business thinker by Thinkers50.

Clayton

Donald Arthur Norman is a professor emeritus of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego, and a Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University. He also co-directs the dual degree MBA + Engineering degree program between the Kellogg School and Northwestern Engineering. Norman is on numerous company advisory boards, including the editorial board of Encyclopædia Britannica.&nbsp;
He currently splits his time between consulting, teaching, and writing. He co-founded the Nielsen Norman Group, a consulting group on matters of usability, which also includes Jakob Nielsen and Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini. Many of Norman's books deal mostly with usability or with cognitive psychology. He loves products that are enjoyable to use, a feature that he attributes to putting together emotion and design, or heart and mind.

Blake Snyder (October 3, 1957 – August 4, 2009) was an American screenwriter, consultant, author, and educator based in Los Angeles who, through his Save the Cat trilogy of books on screenwriting and story structures, became one of the most popular writing mentors in the film industry. Snyder led international seminars and workshops for writers in various disciplines and consultation sessions for some of Hollywood's largest studios.
Snyder died unexpectedly on August 4, 2009, of what was characterized as either a pulmonary embolism or cardiac arrest. A public memorial was held at the Writers Guild of America, West, on September 29, 2009.
Snyder's father, Kenneth C. T. Snyder, was an Emmy-winning TV producer of many children's shows in the 1960s and 1970s. Among them were The Funny Company, Hot Wheels, animated segments on Sesame Street, Big Blue Marble, and Roger Ramjet.
At the age of eight, Snyder was hired by his father as a voice talent for an animated special starring Sterling Holloway. Snyder continued doing children's voices alongside Gary Owens, June Foray, and others until his voice changed, and his producer father fired him.
Snyder went on to earn a B.A. degree in English from Georgetown University and returned to Los Angeles, where he began his career writing for the Disney TV series Kids Incorporated. Snyder began writing full-time as a screenwriter in 1987. He was a member of the Writers Guild of America for over 20 years.
Snyder's first spec screenplay sale was in 1989 for the script Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, which sold for $500,000 in a bidding war. Million-dollar script sales include Blank Check, co-written with Colby Carr for Walt Disney Pictures, and Nuclear Family, co-written with James Haggin for Amblin Entertainment.
Snyder's nonfiction book Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need was the number one-selling book among screenwriting manuals on Amazon, and 2018 is on its 34th printing. The book describes in detail the structure of the monomyth or hero's journey, providing a by-the-minute pattern for screenwriting.

Blake

Field Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, CMG, MC, KStJ, PC (5 May 1883 – 24 May 1950) was a senior officer of the British Army. He served in the Second Boer War, the Bazar Valley Campaign, and the First World War, during which he was wounded in the Second Battle of Ypres. In the Second World War, he served initially as Commander-in-Chief Middle East.&nbsp;
In that role, he led British forces to victory over the Italians in western Egypt and eastern Libya during Operation Compass in December 1940, only to be defeated by the German Army in the Western Desert in April 1941. He served as Commander-in-Chief of India from July 1941 until June 1943 (apart from a brief tour as Commander of ABDACOM). Then he served as Viceroy of India until his retirement in February 1947.
Born the son of Archibald Graham Wavell (who later became a major-general in the British Army and military commander of Johannesburg after its capture during the Second Boer War) and Lillie Wavell (née Percival), Wavell attended Eaton House, followed by the leading preparatory boarding school Summer Fields near Oxford, Winchester College, where he was a scholar, and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.&nbsp;
His headmaster, Dr. Fearon, had advised his father that there was no need to send him into the Army as he had "sufficient ability to make his way in other walks of life" After graduating from Sandhurst, Wavell was commissioned into the British Army on 8 May 1901 as a second lieutenant in the Black Watch, and joined the 2nd battalion of his regiment in South Africa to fight in the Second Boer War.
The battalion stayed in South Africa throughout the war, which formally ended in June 1902 after the Peace of Vereeniging. Wavell was ill and did not immediately join the battalion as it transferred to British India in October of that year; he instead left Cape Town for England on the SS Simla at the same time.&nbsp;
In 1903 he was transferred to join the battalion in India, and having been promoted to lieutenant on 13 August 1904, he fought in the Bazar Valley Campaign of February 1908. In January 1909 was seconded from his regiment to be a student at the Staff College. He was one of only two in his class to graduate with an A grade.&nbsp;&nbsp;
In 1911, he spent a year as a military observer with the Russian Army to learn Russian, returning to his regiment in December of that year. In April 1912, he became a General Staff Officer Grade 3 (GSO3) in the Russian Section of the War Office. In July, he was granted the temporary rank of captain and became GSO3 at the Directorate of Military Training. On 20 March 1913, Wavell was promoted to the substantive rank of captain.&nbsp;
After visiting maneuvers at Kiev in the summer of 1913, he was arrested at the Russo-Polish border as a suspected spy, following a search of his Moscow hotel room by the secret police, but managed to remove from his papers an incriminating document listing the information wanted by the War Office.

Lord

Steeped in African American history, Carrie Mae Weems makes alternately searing and tender photographs and videos that explore race, family, class, and gender identity. The artist, who has also worked in verse and performance, embraces activism throughout all her work—in particular, she looks to history in order to better understand the present. In the early 1990s, Weems rose to prominence with her beloved “Kitchen Table” series: intimate black-and-white photographs that undermine tropes of African American life and womanhood as they depict the artist seated at her kitchen table alone or alongside various other characters.&nbsp;
Over the course of her career, Weems has received countless honors, including the Prix de Roma, the National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship, and the MacArthur “Genius Grant.” In 2014, she became the first Black woman to mount a retrospective at the Guggenheim, and her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Carrie

Amanda Palmer is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and performance artist. Born in 1976 in New York City, Palmer developed a love for music and art at an early age. She began playing piano at age five and went on to study classical piano, theater, and modern dance in her youth.
In her teenage years, Palmer began writing her own songs. She went on to attend Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where she further honed her songwriting skills and earned a degree in theater. After college, she joined the Boston-based street performance duo The Dresden Dolls.
The Dresden Dolls soon gained a cult following and released two albums, The Dresden Dolls (2003) and Yes, Virginia (2006). The duo toured extensively, performing at music festivals, theaters, and clubs around the world. After the duo separated, Palmer embarked on a solo career.
Her debut solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer, was released in 2008 to critical acclaim. The album featured a variety of musical styles, from piano-driven rock to cabaret-style ballads. Palmer's songs often explore personal and political topics, such as death, love, loss, and gender.
In 2012, Palmer released her second solo album, Theatre Is Evil, which was produced by John Congleton. The album was a commercial success and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package. She followed it up with two more albums: There Will Be No Intermission (2019) and A Collection of Poems You Can’t Unread (2020).
In addition to her musical career, Palmer is also an accomplished writer. She has written two books, The Art of Asking (2014) and The Bedroom Tour (2020), which explore the power of human connection and the importance of asking for help. She has also written a number of essays and articles.
Outside of her music and writing, Palmer is an outspoken advocate for the rights of artists. She has been a vocal opponent of record labels and streaming services, which have been accused of taking advantage of musicians. She is a strong supporter of independent artists and has encouraged performers to take control of their own careers.
Amanda Palmer is an incredibly talented and inspiring artist. She is a gifted musician, songwriter, and writer, and her commitment to social justice and the rights of independent musicians is admirable. Her music, books, and advocacy have made a real impact on the world, and she is an inspiration to many.

Amanda

Acclaimed as “the guru of all screenwriters” (CNN), Syd Field (1935-2013) is still regarded by many Hollywood professionals to be the leading authority in the art and craft of screenwriting. The Hollywood Reporter called him “the most sought-after screenwriting teacher in the world.”Field's internationally acclaimed best-selling books "Screenplay:&nbsp;
The Foundations of Screenwriting," "The Screenwriter’s Workbook," and "The Screenwriter’s Problem Solver" have established themselves as the “bibles” of the film industry. "Screenplay" and "The Screenwriter’s Workbook" are in their fortieth printing and are used in colleges and universities across the country. They have been translated and published in more than 25 languages.
The field was also a special consultant to the Film Preservation Project for the famed Getty Center, was the first inductee into the prestigious Screenwriting Hall of Fame of the American Screenwriting Association, and is a recipient of the distinguished Final Draft Hall of Fame Award. Field chaired the Academic Liaison Committee at The Writer’s Guild of America, west; was on the faculty at the USC Master’s of Professional Writing Program; taught at Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, the AFI, and many other noted institutions.&nbsp;
He was a Special Script Consultant to 20th-Century Fox, Disney Studios, Universal, and Tristar Pictures. He was a creative screenwriting consultant to the governments of Austria, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, and Norway and collaborated with such noted filmmakers as Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity, Y Tu Mama Tambien), James L. Brooks (Broadcast News, As Good As It Gets), Luis Mandoki (When A Man Loves A Woman), Roland Joffe (The Killing Fields, The Mission), and Tony Kaye (American History X).
Field taught screenwriting workshops in Berlin, Bombay, Brussels, and Buenos Aires, the Canadian Film Industry in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Edmonton, in Frankfurt, Johannesburg, London, Madrid, Mexico City, Munich, Oslo, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, South Africa, Sydney, Warsaw, and by special invitation of the Ministries of Culture in Vienna and Zurich. He was the Keynote Speaker at the International Film Festivals in Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, and Oslo, Norway, and the President of the International Film Jury at the Flanders International Film Festival, Ghent, Belgium.
Some of Field’s former students include Golden Globe-nominated writer/director Judd Apatow (The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling, Bridesmaids, Girls), Oscar-winning filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity, Y Tu Mama Tambien), Oscar-nominated writer/producer Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile), Oscar-nominated writer Anna Hamilton Phelan (Mask, Gorillas in the Mist), Oscar-nominated writer/director John Singleton (Snowfall, Boyz N the Hood), Randi Mayem Singer (Mrs. Doubtfire), Laura Esquivel (Like Water For Chocolate), and Kevin Williamson (The Vampire Diaries, Scream 1 – 4).

Daniel Pink is an award-winning author and speaker whose books on business and professional success have sold millions of copies in dozens of countries and been translated into over 35 languages. His latest book, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, is a deep dive into the science of timing.
Pink has written six books, including four New York Times bestsellers. His first book, Free Agent Nation, set off a national debate on the changing nature of work and was praised by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter. His second book, A Whole New Mind, predicted the rise of right-brain thinking in the workplace and spent six months on the New York Times bestseller list.&nbsp;
His third book, Drive, a No. 1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, explored the science of motivation and revealed the surprising truth about what really drives us to succeed. His fourth book, To Sell is Human, looked at the changing nature of sales, and was named one of the best books of the year by Amazon, Apple, and the Financial Times. His fifth book, When, is a deep dive into the science of timing.&nbsp;
As well as writing books, Pink is a leading business speaker and consultant. He has been described by the American Management Association as “one of the most influential business thinkers in the world,” and millions of people around the world have watched his talks. He has advised a range of leading organizations, including the United States and British governments, Microsoft, Pixar, and the NFL.&nbsp;
Pink has also been a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for the Sunday Telegraph, and a frequent commentator on National Public Radio. He was a top-ranking student at Northwestern University, where he won a Goldman Sachs Global Leadership Award, and he holds a degree in philosophy from Yale University.&nbsp;
Pink’s books have been praised by a wide range of business, academic, and political leaders. Former U.S. President Barack Obama said of Pink’s book Drive, “It’s a book that every leader in America should read.”&nbsp;
Daniel Pink’s books, talks, and consulting services have inspired millions of people around the world. He is widely recognized as one of the leading authorities on business, motivation, and success.

Daniel

Amy Whitaker is a writer, artist, and researcher working at the intersections of business, politics, and art. She is an assistant professor at NYU in visual arts administration and the author of two books, Art Thinking and Museum Legs. Amy's research on fractional equity for artists has been featured in Artsy, The Art Newspaper, and Artforum. Her general work has been featured in the Financial Times, Boston Globe, Atlantic, Harpers, Inside HigherEd, and many other outlets.&nbsp;
She has spoken widely including at the Rhode Island School of Design, University of Minnesota Duluth, Google, the Aspen Ideas Festival, the Fast Company Innovation Festival, the Barnes Foundation, the Conference Malmo (Sweden), The Next Web (Amsterdam), and TEDx. Amy has taught the business to artists and art to business people for more than fifteen years--since she was studying for her MFA in painting after already having an MBA.&nbsp;
She has taught in the original Trade School and at Trade School at the Whitney and Museum of Arts and Design. She taught Stock Market Basics outdoors at the original Occupy Wall Street. She taught studio art and design classes, in business, at RISD, the School of Visual Arts, Williams College, and California College of the Arts. She also used to lead the Principles of Business course at the Sotheby's Institute. Amy is trained as a painter.&nbsp;
Collector Charles Saatchi commended her large-scale group portraits by professional affiliation, and a curator of a large London museum collected her print Museum Director Action Heroes. She also wrote "Amy Whitaker Invites Six Investment Bankers," in which she invited lawyers and economists to make artwork for a group show. Starting with Art Thinking, she has illustrated her own books with line drawings.
Amy began her career in art museums, including the Guggenheim, MoMA, and Tate. She has also worked for the artist Jenny Holzer and for the finance companies Locus Analytics and D.E. Shaw &amp; Co., L.P., one of the largest investment firms in the world. She is named on Locus patents for economic classification systems and also holds a Series 7 license.

Stephen Joshua Sondheim was an American composer and lyricist. One of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having "reinvented the American musical" with shows that tackle "unexpected themes that range far beyond the traditional subjects" with "music and lyrics of unprecedented complexity and sophistication."&nbsp;
His shows address "darker, more harrowing elements of the human experience," with songs often tinged with "ambivalence" about various aspects of life. He was known for his frequent collaborations with Hal Prince and James Lapine on the Broadway stage. Sondheim's interest in musical theater began at a young age, and he was mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II.&nbsp;
He began his career by writing the lyrics for West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959). He transitioned to writing both music and lyrics for the theater, with his best-known works including A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), and Into the Woods (1987).
Sondheim's numerous awards and nominations include eight Tony Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Tony in 2008), an Academy Award, eight Grammy Awards, an Olivier Award, a Pulitzer Prize, a Kennedy Center Honor, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. A theater is named after him both on Broadway and in London's West End. Film adaptations of his works include West Side Story (1961), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Into the Woods (2014), and West Side Story (2021).
Sondheim was born on March 22, 1930, into a Jewish family in New York City, the son of Etta Janet ("Foxy"; née Fox; 1897–1992) and Herbert Sondheim (1895–1966). His paternal grandparents, Isaac and Rosa, were German Jews, and his maternal grandparents, Joseph and Bessie, were Lithuanian Jews from Vilnius. His father manufactured dresses designed by his mother. The composer grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and, after his parents divorced, on a farm near Doylestown, Pennsylvania.&nbsp;
The only child of affluent parents living in the San Remo at 145 Central Park West, he was described in Meryle Secrest's biography Stephen Sondheim: A Life as an isolated, emotionally neglected child. Sondheim attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School when he lived in New York City. He spent several summers at Camp Androscoggin. His mother sent him to New York Military Academy in 1940.
&nbsp;From 1942 to 1947, he attended George School, a private Quaker preparatory school in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he wrote his first musical, By George, in 1946. From 1946 to 1950, Sondheim attended Williams College. He graduated magna cum laude and received the Hubbard Hutchinson Prize, a two-year fellowship to study music. Sondheim traced his interest in theater to Very Warm for May, a Broadway musical he saw when he was nine.&nbsp;
"The curtain went up and revealed a piano," Sondheim recalled. "A butler took a duster and brushed it up, tinkling the keys. I thought that was thrilling." Sondheim detested his mother, who was said to be psychologically abusive and to have projected her anger from her failed marriage onto her son: "When my father left her, she substituted me for him.&nbsp;
And she used me the way she used him, to come on to and to berate, beat up on, you see. What she did for five years was treat me like dirt but come on to me at the same time." She once wrote him a letter saying that her only regret was giving birth to him. When she died in 1992, Sondheim did not attend her funeral. He had been estranged from her for nearly 20 years.

Stephen

Guillermo del Toro is a Mexican filmmaker best known for his dark yet romantic fantasy films, such as Pan's Labyrinth and The Shape of Water. Born in 1964 in Guadalajara, Mexico, del Toro began his career in the early 1990s, directing Mexican horror films such as Cronos and The Devil’s Backbone. By the early 2000s, del Toro had achieved widespread fame in the United States, thanks to the success of Pan’s Labyrinth, which earned him an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006.&nbsp;
Since then, del Toro has directed a number of films with varying degrees of success. His most notable works include Hellboy, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Pacific Rim, and Crimson Peak. His latest film, The Shape of Water, was one of the most acclaimed films of 2017, winning four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.&nbsp;
In addition to directing films, del Toro is also a prolific producer, having produced films such as The Orphanage and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. He has also written a number of books and graphic novels, including The Strain trilogy and Trollhunters. He has also worked as a consultant and executive producer on a number of video games, most notably the critically-acclaimed 2017 title Shadow of the Colossus.
In 2018, del Toro was awarded the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival. He is widely recognized as one of the most influential filmmakers of his generation, and his films are praised for their originality, rich visuals, and complex themes. Del Toro’s films are often seen as a reflection of his own life and experiences, and he is known for his strong commitment to the use of practical effects and a detailed approach to world-building.
In addition to filmmaking, del Toro is also an avid collector of horror memorabilia and is a vocal supporter of independent Mexican cinema. He has also been involved in various humanitarian initiatives, such as producing a short film, Six Stories, to raise awareness of the plight of Mexican immigrants in the United States.&nbsp;
Del Toro is a passionate advocate of the use of practical effects in films and frequently uses his own money to fund special effects for his films. He is also a strong advocate of the use of 3D technology in film and believes that it is a powerful and useful tool for storytelling.

Guillermo

Herbert Ypma is a bestselling author and photographer whose groundbreaking HIP Hotels series inspired an entirely new genre of travel publishing. His many other books include RSVP: Simple Sophistication, Effortless Entertaining, and Amazing Places Cost Nothing.

Herbert

Christopher Vogler (born 1949, Missouri/US) is a Hollywood development executive, screenwriter, author, and educator, best known for working with Disney and his screenwriting guide, The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers, from 2007.
He studied filmmaking at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts - formerly the USC School of Cinema-Television, otherwise known as CNTV, the alma mater of George Lucas. Like him, he was inspired by the writings of mythologist Joseph Campbell, particularly The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which detailed the Hero's Journey archetype in classical mythology.
Vogler used Campbell's work to create a 7-page company memo for Hollywood screenwriters, A Practical Guide to The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which Vogler later developed into The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters in 1992, and then The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers.
Vogler has since spun off his techniques into worldwide Masterclasses. He has worked for Disney studios, Fox 2000 pictures, and Warner Bros. in the development department. He contributed story material to the Disney animated feature The Lion King (1994).
He has also taught in the USC School of Cinema-Television (known today as USC School of Cinematic Arts), Division of Animation and Digital Arts, as well as at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) extension. He is the President of the company Storytech Literary Consulting. It was founded in 1999, and its Vice President, Brad Schreiber, consults on scripts and books, utilizing Vogler's approach.

Christopher

Walter Francis Kerr was an American writer and Broadway theatre critic. He also was the writer, lyricist, and/or director of several Broadway plays and musicals and the author of several books, generally on the subject of theater and cinema. Kerr was born in Evanston, Illinois, and earned both a B.A. and M.A. from Northwestern University., after graduation from St. George H.S. also in Evanston.
He was a regular film critic for the St. George High School newspaper while a student there and was also a critic for the Evanston News Index. He was the editor of the high school newspaper and yearbook. He taught speech and drama at The Catholic University of America. After writing criticism for Commonweal, he became a theater critic for the New York Herald Tribune in 1951. When that paper folded, he then began writing theater reviews for The New York Times in 1966, writing for the next seventeen years.
He married Jean Kerr (née Collins) on August 9, 1943. She was also a writer. Together, they wrote the musical Goldilocks (1958), which won two Tony Awards. They also collaborated on Touch and Went (1949) and King of Hearts (1954). They had six children. Kerr died from congestive heart failure on October 9, 1996. David Niven portrayed him pseudonymously in the 1960 film Please Don't Eat the Daisies, based on Jean Kerr's best-selling collection of humorous essays.&nbsp;
Kerr was one of his era's harshest New York theatre critics, giving the fewest favorable reviews. He was well known for musically ambitious panning musicals. Notoriously he is credited with one of the world's shortest reviews, "Me no Leica," for John Van Druten's I Am a Camera in the New York Herald Tribune, December 31, 1951. Many of the shows he critiqued were those of Stephen Sondheim.&nbsp;
About Sondheim's Company, Kerr wrote that it was too cold, cynical, and distant for his taste, though he "admitted to admiring large parts of the show." About Sondheim's Follies, he wrote, " 'Follies' is intermissionless and exhausting, an extravaganza that becomes tedious for two simple reasons: Its extravagances have nothing to do with its pebble of a plot; and the plot, which could be wrapped up in approximately two songs, dawdles through 22 before it declares itself done. Mr.&nbsp;
Sondheim may be too much a man of the seventies, too present-tense and sophisticated. The effort to bind it up inhibits the crackling, open-ended, restlessly varied surges of sound he devised with such distinction for Company." He praised A Little Night Music, saying, "The score is a gift, the ladies are delightful, and producer Harold Prince has staged the moody meetings with easy skill."
He expressed mixed sentiments about Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, praising the music but deeming it too lilting for the show's grisly subject; his conclusion- "What is this musical about?" He wrote a follow-up article on his observation that the musical contained a plot from Molière's The School for Wives, posing the question of who, of all of the authors who had revised the tale of Sweeney Todd over the years, had put the plot into the story.
Nevertheless, in 1977, he wrote of Sondheim, "I needn't tell you that Stephen Sondheim is, both musically and lyrically, the most sophisticated composer now working for the Broadway theater." In reviewing Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, he focused on the dancing: "the most savage, restless, electrifying dance patterns we've been exposed to in a dozen seasons... The dancing is it. Don't look for laughter or—for that matter—tears."
In his review of the original 1956 Broadway production of Candide, he wrote that it was a "really spectacular disaster." However, in reviewing the 1973 revival of Candide, he wrote that it was a "most satisfying resurrection. 'Candide' may, at last, have stumbled into the best of all possible productions... The show is now a carousel, and we are on it quite safely... The design of the unending chase is so firm; the performers are so secure in their climbing and tumbling...that we are able to join the journey and still see it with the detachment that Voltaire prescribes."
Of Frank Loesser's "musical with a lot of music" [sic. Opera], The Happiest Fella, he wrote: "the evening at the Imperial is finally heavy with its own inventiveness, weighted down with the variety and fulsomeness of a genuinely creative appetite. It's as though Mr. Loesser had written two complete musicals—the operetta and the haymaker—on the same simple play and then crammed them both into a single structure."
Kerr was also notable for his lack of enthusiasm regarding the plays of Samuel Beckett. For instance, in Beckett's Waiting For Godot, he wrote, "The play, asking for a thousand readings, has none of its own to give. It is a veil rather than a revelation. It wears a mask rather than a face."
Walter Kerr won a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1978 for "articles on the theater". In 1983, Kerr was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. In 1990, the former Ritz Theater on West 48th Street in the Theater District, New York, was renamed the Walter Kerr Theatre in his honor.

Walter

Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni Jr. (born June 7, 1943) is an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. One of the world's most well-known African-American poets, her work includes poetry anthologies, poetry recordings, and nonfiction essays and covers topics ranging from race and social issues to children's literature. She has won numerous awards, including the Langston Hughes Medal and the NAACP Image Award.&nbsp;
She has been nominated for a Grammy Award for her poetry album, The Nikki Giovanni Poetry Collection. Additionally, she has been named one of Oprah Winfrey's 25 "Living Legends." Giovanni gained initial fame in the late 1960s as one of the foremost authors of the Black Arts Movement. Influenced by the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement of the period, her early work provides a strong, militant African-American perspective, leading one writer to dub her the "Poet of the Black Revolution."&nbsp;
During the 1970s, she began writing children's literature and co-founded a publishing company, NikTom Ltd, to provide an outlet for other African-American women writers. Over subsequent decades, her works discussed social issues, human relationships, and hip-hop. Poems such as "Knoxville, Tennessee" and "Nikki-Rosa" have been frequently re-published in anthologies and other collections.
Giovanni has received numerous awards and holds 27 honorary degrees from various colleges and universities. She has also been given the key to over two dozen cities. Giovanni has been honored with the NAACP Image Award seven times. One of her more unique honors was having a South American bat species, Micronycteris giovanniae, named after her in 2007.
Giovanni is proud of her Appalachian roots and works to change the way the world views Appalachians and Affrilachians. Giovanni has taught at Queens College, Rutgers, and Ohio State and was a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech until September 1, 2022. Following the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, she delivered a chant poem at a memorial for the shooting victims.
Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni Jr. was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, to Yolande Cornelia Sr. and Jones "Gus" Giovanni. Soon after her birth, the family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where her parents worked at Glenview School. In 1948, the family moved to Wyoming, Ohio, and sometimes in those first three years, Giovanni's sister, Gary, began calling her "Nikki." In 1958, Giovanni moved to Knoxville, TN, to live with her grandparents and attend Austin High School.
In 1960, she began her studies at her grandfather's alma mater, Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, as an "Early Entrant," which meant that she could enroll in college without having finished high school first. She immediately clashed with the Dean of Women, Ann Cheatam, and was expelled after neglecting to obtain the required permission from the Dean to leave campus and travel home for Thanksgiving break. Giovanni moved back to Knoxville, where she worked at a Walgreens drug store and helped care for her nephew, Christopher.&nbsp;
In 1964, Giovanni spoke with the new Dean of Women at Fisk University, Blanche McConnell Cowan ("Jackie"), who urged her to return to Fisk that fall. While at Fisk, Giovanni edited a student literary journal (titled Élan), reinstated the campus chapter of SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee), and published an essay in Negro Digest on gender questions in the Movement. In 1967, she graduated with honors with a B.A. degree in history.
Soon after graduation, she suffered the loss of her grandmother, Louvenia Watson, and turned to writing to cope with her death. These poems would later be included in her collection Black Feelings, Black Talk. In 1968, Giovanni attended a semester at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work toward an MSW and then moved to New York City. She briefly attended Columbia University School of the Arts toward an MFA in poetry and privately published Black Feeling, Black Talk.&nbsp;

Nikki

Philip

Here are some of the most well-known poems in the English language, chosen for their literary value as well as popularity.&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp;The following poems date from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century and have the ability to stimulate our intellect and rejuvenate our souls:&nbsp;
When You Are Old by W. B. Yeats, First Fig by Edna St. Vincent Millay, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, Sonnet XVIII (Shall I compare thee to a summers day?) by William Shakespeare, Holy Sonnet X (Death, be not proud) by John Donne, To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth, Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Children's Hour by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Tennyson, O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman, and This Is My Letter to the World by Emily Dickinson.

Naval Ravikant is an Indian-American entrepreneur, author, and angel investor. Ravikant's career has focused primarily on technology, startups, and venture capital. He began his career as a software developer and later co-founded several technology companies, including Epinions and Vast.com. In 2010, he co-founded AngelList, a venture capital firm that helps startups raise funding and connect with investors. Under his leadership, AngelList has become one of the industry's most successful and influential venture firms.
Naval Ravikant is the host of the podcast "The Naval Podcast," which is focused on technology, startups, and personal development. The podcast features interviews with a wide variety of guests, including entrepreneurs, investors, authors, and other experts in the technology and startup space. The podcast is known for its deep conversations and insights on topics such as building a successful startup, the future of technology, and how to live a fulfilling life.
The podcast has gained a large following and is known for its unique format, which includes a mix of interviews, monologues, and listener Q&amp;A. The podcast is released regularly and has been running for several years. The podcast has been praised for its thought-provoking and actionable advice, its unique format and the diversity of guests. The podcast is available on most podcast platforms.
Naval Ravikant has also written the book "The Almanack of Naval Ravikant." He has also been a guest on many popular podcasts, sharing his insights on technology, startups, and personal development. He is also an active thinker and influencer on social media, sharing his thoughts on various topics, including technology, business, and personal growth.
Overall, Naval Ravikant's career has been marked by his ability to identify and capitalize on emerging trends in the technology industry and his ability to help startups navigate the challenges of building and scaling a business.

Naval

Oprah Winfrey

Maya Angelou

Stephen King

J.K. Rowling

Bill Gates

Philip Smith's '100 Best-Loved Poems' invites you to explore the world of poetry. It's a collection of poems that have stood the test of time, offering a chance to see the world through the eyes of some of the greatest poets.

Exploring the Beauty of Poetry

The book takes you on a journey through different eras of poetry. From Shakespeare to Emily Dickinson, you'll get to research and understand the evolution of poetry and how it reflects the society of its time.

A Journey Through Time

Philip Smith has carefully selected poems that touch on a wide range of human emotions. As you read, you'll find yourself connecting with the poets on a deeper level, experiencing their joy, sorrow, love, and pain.

Understanding Human Emotions

If you're an aspiring poet, this book is a treasure trove. You can learn from the masters of the craft, see how they used words to paint vivid images and evoke strong emotions. It's a great way to improve your own writing skills.

A Learning Tool for Aspiring Poets

Finally, '100 Best-Loved Poems' is a source of inspiration. Whether you're looking for a quote to uplift your day, or a verse to share with a loved one, you'll find it in this book. So, why not take a look and let the words of these great poets inspire you?

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