An HP Dad,* Cary is a Grammy-Nominated Songwriter, Performer and Producer. His songs and co-writes have been streamed over 40 Million times and he’s had record & publishing deals with Universal, Capitol and Warner Brothers. He’s toured the world and shared stages with John Mayer, Dave Matthews Band and many others. He has appeared on Conan O’Brien, countless other national and local TV shows and has written songs with artists as diverse as Katy Perry & Chris Tomlin. Cary & Jack O’Neill founded the band Jackopierce as SMU theater majors. After spending 5 years relentlessly recording & releasing music and touring the country they were signed to major label A&M Records.

For 37 years now, Jackopierce has toured the world in 48 states, 10 countries, on 3 continents and they’ve sold about 500,000 albums. They play about 50 shows per year and will be at the Granada in Dallas Friday, Apr 4. He lives in Dallas with his HP grad wife Cara and three *HP boys: Jordan ‘19, Jaron ‘26 and Elijah ‘28.

K.E. Davenport graduated from HPHS in 2000 and went on to study film, storytelling, and animation at NYU and later at The University of Texas, where she graduated in 2004.

She worked as a distance learning coordinator, a controller for JP Morgan, a home remodeler, and a teacher before becoming a full-time author. She has also volunteered as an animal rescuer, transporting and fostering animals on behalf of local shelters, as well as running social media for one of her favorite rescue groups.

During the last five years, K.E. has immersed herself in learning the world of independent publishing while releasing her science fantasy trilogy: The Moon Travelers. Currently, she's in the process of developing two new series that will be released later this year and in 2025.

K.E. spends most of her leisure time with her husband, kids, and pets. When she's not daydreaming, writing, or editing, she can be found hiking or having fun outdoors with her family.

Ben Montgomery is author of the New York Times-bestselling 'Grandma Gatewood's Walk,' 'The Leper Spy,' 'The Man Who Walked Backward,' and 'A Shot in the Moonlight." He spent most of his 20 year newspaper career as an enterprise reporter for the Tampa Bay Times. He founded the narrative journalism website Gangrey.com and helped launch the Auburn Chautauqua, a Southern writers collective. He has taught journalism at the University of Montana and the University of South Florida.

In 2010, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in local reporting and won the Dart Award and Casey Medal for a series called "For Their Own Good," about abuse at Florida's oldest reform school.

Montgomery grew up in Oklahoma and studied journalism at Arkansas Tech University. He worked for the Courier in Russellville, Ark., the Standard-Times in San Angelo, Texas, the Times Herald-Record in New York's Hudson River Valley and the Tampa Tribune before joining the Times in 2006. He lives in Tampa.

Martha Jackson is a storyteller at heart, a podcast host, lover of her community, and advocate for sharing authentic voices. As the creator and host of The Bubble Lounge Podcast, Martha has spent six years celebrating the people, businesses, and stories that make Highland Park and University Park unique. Her podcast has become a cherished part of the community, offering insights into parenting, education, local traditions, and the triumphs and challenges of everyday life. A proud graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a degree in Radio-Television-Film, Martha initially aspired to work behind the scenes in media. However, her journey took an unexpected turn when she launched The Bubble Lounge Podcast. Despite her initial fears of being on camera and sharing her voice, Martha embraced the opportunity to grow personally and professionally. Through her podcast, she has not only entertained and informed but also empowered others to embrace their creativity

Ben Baby is a Cincinnati-based NFL reporter for ESPN. He has covered the Cincinnati Bengals since 2019. Previously, he covered college football for The Dallas Morning News. He is a graduate of the University of North Texas and is from Grapevine.

George Getschow is a Pulitzer Prize finalist for National Reporting and winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Award for distinguished writing about the underprivileged. He has earned numerous other awards for his writing and was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2012 for “distinctive literary achievement.” He spent 16 years at The Wall Street Journal as a writer, editor, bureau chief and Mexico correspondent. In 2007, he was awarded a Master of Fine Arts in Writing, Creative Nonfiction, from Spalding University, Louisville, KY. He spent 12 years serving as writer-in-residence and co-founder of the nationally renowned Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. During that same period, he teamed up with Larry McMurtry to conduct writing workshops in McMurtry’s hometown of Archer City, TX. After McMurtry’s death in 2021, Getschow curated and edited Pastures of the Empty Page, an acclaimed literary anthology about Larry McMurtry’s epic life.

Paula Goldberg is a storyteller, educator, lover of coffee and salt and someone who is fiercely optimistic that at 52 percent of the population, women can be a political and artistic force. She has worked in corporate America, academia and artistically as a content writer, actor, screenwriter, producer and director.

Credits include the feature screenplay for The Perfect Family starring Kathleen Turner and Emily Deschanel, Writer and Director of Daily short pick of the week, Perfidy with Julie Benz and Sasha Roiz (2020), the short screenplay of Kleen starring Melora Walters (premiered at the LA International Short Film Festival, July 2019,) writing and directing 2 micro shorts with XV Anthology, directing the 3rd season of the Roland Joffe produced MTV series, Undressed, creating the original web series, Inappropriate Workplace and most impressively, raising a 16 year-old son. Her most recent screenplay, Unimaginable, was selected to The Women’s List 2024 and was a semi-finalist in the Dallas International Film Festival’s Screenwriting competition.

Author Rusty Williams writes about history through the stories of the people who lived it. He is the author of six nonfiction books, five on Texas topics. His latest book, Texas Loud, Proud, and Brash, How Ten Mavericks Created the Twentieth-Century Lone Star State (Rowman & Littlefield) tells how Texas earned its outsized reputation. Deadly Dallas: A History of Unfortunate Incidents and Grisly Fatalities (The History Press) is recommended as a “must-read for anyone who approaches Dallas history with a sense of humor, however dark.” Rusty is also the author of Red River Bridge War: A Texas-Oklahoma Border Battle (Texas A&M Press), winner of the Oklahoma Book Award, and My Old Confederate Home: A Respectable Place for Civil War Veterans (University Press of Kentucky), honored with the Douglas S. Freeman Southern History Award. Rusty regularly speaks on historical topics nationwide and writes articles for magazines and journals.

Glenna is an award-winning investigative reporter. Whitley’s work has appeared in numerous publications, including The Dallas Morning News, D Magazine, Dallas Observer, Glamour, Ladies Home Journal, More, The New York Times, Texas Monthly, Penthouse, Reader’s Digest, Redbook, Town & Country, and many more.

She is co-author of Stolen Valor, a non-fiction book published in 1998 about the Vietnam War. The book received the 2000 William E. Colby Award for non-fiction writing on military affairs. It received acclaim from news outlets as diverse as ABC’s 20/20, NPR’s This American Life with Ira Glass, and Naval Proceedings, and popularized the phrase “stolen valor” to describe military pretenders.

She has discussed her stories on numerous television programs such as Dateline, NBC News, The Hunt with Jon Walsh, ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary series, Snapped, and Discovery Investigates. Whitley is a graduate of Texas A&M University, where she earned a degree in journalism.

Taylor Moore is the author of Cold Trail, Ricochet, Firestorm, and Down Range, which was nominated for the Barry Award for Best First Novel, named a Strand Magazine Best Mystery of 2021, and selected for the Texas Library Association’s Lariat Reading List. He is a sixth-generation Texan who grew up on a farm and ranch northwest of Houston and is a former CIA Intelligence Officer who worked in both analysis and operations and later consulted for the Department of Defense on military intelligence issues. He now lives in the Texas Panhandle with his wife and two children, where he is a full-time author and screenwriter.