The Beach at Night

Elena Ferrante, author of The Days of Abandonment, Troubling Love, and My Brilliant Friend, among others, is one of Italy’s most important and acclaimed contemporary writers. She was named one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2016 by Time.

Natalie Portman, Academy Award–winning actress, filmmaker, and philanthropist, first charmed audiences at the age of eleven in Luc Besson’s The Professional. Since then she has starred in over twenty-five films, including Beautiful Girls, Cold Mountain, Garden State, and Closer. In 2011, she received an Oscar for her performance in Darren Aronofsky’s critically acclaimed film Black Swan. Portman has also taken on a variety of roles behind the lens including A Tale of Love and Darkness, which she wrote, directed, and starred in. She will soon be seen as Jacqueline Kennedy in Pablo Larraín’s Jackie, to be released by Fox Searchlight in December 2016. When Portman isn’t working, she serves as ambassador of WE and FINCA, in addition to working with Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. A Harvard graduate with a degree in psychology, Portman has also studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Ann Goldstein is the former senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.