Sinéad O'Connor (8 December 1966 - 26 July 2023) was a singer, songwriter, and activist. Her debut studio album, The Lion and the Cobra, was released in 1987 and achieved international chart success. Her 1990 album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, was her biggest commercial success, selling over seven million copies worldwide. Her memoir Rememberings (2021) received broad critical praise, and she was the subject of the documentary Nothing Compares (2022).

Kristin Hersh is a musician's musician, a songwriter's songwriter, and an innovator's innovator. The Queen of Grunge's first band, Throwing Muses, began recording and playing out when they were just 14 years old. She has released more than 20 albums solo, with Throwing Muses, and with her noise rock band, 50 Foot Wave.

Rolling Stone named her first book, Rat Girl, one of the ten best rock memoirs of all time. NPR said of her second book, Don't Suck, Don't Die, "Not only one of the best books of the year, but one of the most beautiful rock memoirs ever written." Her third, the game-changing Seeing Sideways, describes raising four sons on a tour bus.

Hersh's book The Future of Songwriting was published by Melville House in 2024.