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Jacqueline Tobin is the author of *The Tao Women*, and is also a teacher, collector, and writer of women's stories. She lives in Denver, Colorado.

Timothy Zahn was born and raised in the Chicago area. He earned a B.S. in Physics from the University of Michigan in 1973 and an M.S. in Physics from the University of Illinois in 1975. Zahn began writing science fiction in 1975 as a hobby. As he worked towards his doctorate in physics, he began to devote more of his time to writing, selling his first short story to *Analog* in 1978. . In 1980, he left the university to begin his year of full-time writing. His wife Anna was working full-time to support him during this endeavor. He wrote 18 stories in that year and brought in $2,000 (doubling the goal he had set of $1,000). He knew he could earn a living at writing eventually, but it took him until 1984 to achieve that goal. His best known work is *The Thrawn Trilogy*, the *Star Wars* novels that actually revived flagging interest in the *Star Wars* universe. He won a Hugo award in 1984 for the novella *Cascade Point* and has been nominated for Hugos on two other occasions. He currently lives with his family on the Oregon Coast.

Margaret Gibson is the author of seven books of poetry: *Icon and Evidence *(2001); *Earth Elegy, New and Selected Poems* (1997); *The Vigil, A Poem in Four Voices*, a Finalist for the National Book Award in 1993; *Out in the Open* (1989); *Memories of the Future, The Daybooks of Tina Modotti*, co-winner of the Melville Cane Award of the Poetry Society of America in 1986-87; *Long Walks in the Afternoon*, the 1982 Lamont Selection of the Academy of American Poets; and *Signs* (1979). Gibson has been a Visiting Professor at The University of Connecticut since 1993. She has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, a Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fellowship, and Grants from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. "Earth Elegy," the title poem of *New and Selected Poems*, won The James Boatwright III Prize for Poetry. "Archaeology" was awarded a Pushcart Prize in 2001. *Autumn Grasses* will be published by LSU Press in 2003. Gibson lives in Preston, Connecticut.

Mary Hood is a short story writer, and regularly publishes reviews and essays in popular and literary magazines. Hood's first collection of stories, How Far She Went (1984), won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction and the Southern Review / Louisiana State University Short Fiction Award. Two years later And Venus Is Blue, Hood's second collection, won the Townsend Prize for Fiction, the Dixie Council of Authors and Journalists Author of the Year Award, and the Lillian Smith Book Award. Following the publishing of Familiar Heat in 1995, she was named the John and Renee Grisham Southern Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi. She was also the first writer in residence at Berry College in 1997 and 1998, and at Reinhardt College in 2001.

As assistant, associate, acting, and finally editor of the *Georgia Review*, he has helped shape the literary landscape in this country for the past two decades. He has also gained national recognition for his own poems and essays. Corey received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Florida in 1979. While at the University of Florida, Corey began *The Devil's Millhopper*, a literary journal he coedited until 1981, when he became sole editor. In 1983 he joined the staff of the *Georgia Review*, serving first as assistant editor (1983-86) and then as associate editor (1986-98). In November 1998 Corey was appointed acting editor of the *Georgia Review*, a position he held until July 2001, when T. R. Hummer assumed editorship. Corey is one of the more influential literary figures in the state. He has also been a prolific poet, essayist, and reviewer.

William W. Starr has been Executive Director of the Georgia Center for the Book in Decatur, Dekalb County in metro Atlanta since 2003. His latest work has been commented on by Peter Martin, author of *Samuel Johnson: A biography and A Life of James Boswell* as follows “Starr transports us with charm and force to this remote corner of the globe where, like Boswell and Johnson, one often feels perched on the very edge of existence.” Starr is also the author of *Southern Writers* and* A Guide to South Carolina Beaches*, an associate editor for *The South Carolina Encyclopedia*, and a contributing essayist for many newspapers and journals.

Michael Thomas was born and raised in Boston. He received his B.A. from Hunter College and his M.F.A. from Warren Wilson College. He currently teaches at Hunter College and lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three children. His novel, *Man Gone Down*, was a *New York Times* Top Ten Best Books of 2007, a *New York Times* Notable Books of 2007, a *San Francisco Chronicle* Notable Book of 2007, and a Spring/Summer 2008 Book Sense Best Reading Group title.

Richard Lindzen is a professor at MIT and is one of the highest prolife climate skeptic scientists, arguably because he has been a member of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on climate change and contributed to the Second Assessment Report. He regularly takes issue with the general conclusions drawn from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports and has been at the forefront of the consistent attacks on the IPCC since the early 1990's. His prolific writings assert that climate change science is inconclusive. His opinions are cited throughout the ExxonMobil funded groups and he regularly appears at events organised by them.