STEVE ISRAEL
Former Congressman Steve Israel left Capitol Hill in rare form: undefeated and unindicted. Chris Buckley called him “the funniest thing to come out of Washington in a long time.” Washington Post reviewer Ron Charles described his writing as “an unexpected delight.” And President Clinton called Israel “one of the most thoughtful members of the House,” which Israel has stated, isn’t saying that much.
After 16 years in the House, Israel chose to explore new projects and less partisanship. After leaving, he was frequently approached by well-known political leaders to advise on story ideas. Israel said, “Show me a Member of Congress and I’ll show you a bad manuscript. But there are also rare gems of a story, with singular perspective and mass appeal, that must be told.” He formed Little Round Top Productions in 2024 to focus on the development of those rare gems.
Israel’s creative life includes publishing two critically acclaimed novels: The Global War on Morris and Big Guns (both produced by Simon & Schuster). Saving Einstein is scheduled for publication in Spring 2025.
He is a consultant to HBO on the development of a feature film on former Rep. George Santos, working with Frank Rich and Mike Makowsky.
His essays have appeared widely in the New York Times, New York Times Review of Books, The Atlantic Monthly , The New Republic, and The Hill. Israel owns Theodore’s Books, an independent bookshop in Oyster Bay, Long Island, named after his political hero, Theodore Roosevelt who, says Israel, “read and wrote a few good books on his own.”
ROBERT MOOK
Robby Mook is a nationally recognized political strategist and campaign organizer. He has managed campaigns at the local, state, and national level, including Jeanne Shaheen’s first winning campaign for U.S. Senate in 2008, Terry McAuliffe’s successful campaign for Governor of Virginia in 2013 and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign for President. He also served as Political Director and Executive Director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from 2009 through 2012 and was later President of House Majority PAC, the only Super PAC exclusively focused on electing House Democrats.
In 2015, Fortune magazine named Mook as one of the country’s “40 Under 40” most influential people in business. He was featured in AdAge’s “40 Under 40” disruptors and innovators in 2016.
Mook has been a senior contributor at CNN and CBS and Senior Fellow and Lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School Government.
Robby is a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve and has been deployed twice to the Middle East and Afghanistan. He is a native of Sharon, Vermont and has a B.A. in Classics from Columbia University and an M.A. in Defense and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College.
ANDREW V. LORENZEN
Armed with a passion for storytelling and an industrial strength espresso machine, Andrew V. Lorenzen writes and edits fiction, essays, and screenplays.
Lorenzen graduated summa cum laude and as a Merrill Presidential Scholar from Cornell University. He then attained a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (Fiction) from New York University, where he was awarded Global Research Initiative Fellowship to pursue research and writing in Prague.
Lorenzen was named a 2024 Marshall Scholar, which will support him as he pursues a Master of Science in Politics & Communication at the London School of Economics and a Master of Science in Narrative Futures: Art, Data, Society at the University of Edinburgh. (He promises he’s done with master’s degrees after those three.)
Lorenzen’s writing has been published by The Nation, Cleaver Magazine, The Miami Herald, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. His work has previously been awarded a Marvin Carlson Award and a Heermans-McCalmon award.
When not writing, Andrew can be found thinking, worrying, or dreaming about writing.