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Gay Talese is the bestselling author of eleven books. He was a reporter for *the New York Times* from 1956 to 1965, and since then he has written for *the Times*, *Esquire*,* The New Yorker*, *Harper's Magazine*, and other national publications. Gay Talese was born in Ocean City, New Jersey, and currently lives in New York City. His groundbreaking article "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold" was named the "best story *Esquire* ever published," and he was credited by Tom Wolfe with the creation of an inventive form of nonfiction writing called "The New Journalism." His most recent book, *A Writer's Life*, was published by Knopf in 2006 and reissued in trade paperback by The Random House Publishing Group in July 2007.

Elizabeth Warren Warren is the junior U.S. Senator for Massachusetts. She made her life's work the fight for middle class families and became an expert on bankruptcy and an outspoken critic of consumer lenders. She is widely credited for the original thinking, political courage, and relentless persistence that led to the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Warren spent nearly 20 years as a professor of law at[ Harvard University,](http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/index.html?id=82 "Warren at Harvard") She is the author of several books including, *The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke*.

Anne T. Converse is a New England-based, freelance documentary photographer. For the past twenty five years, Anne has been taking pictures that reflect her love for horses, wooden boats, people and places. She graduated in 1970 from Endicott College (Boston, MA) and furthered her education at the New England School of Photography from 1971 to 1973. Her travels have taken her throughout the United States and Alaska, to Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, Nepal, Africa, India, Sychelle Islands, Carribean, and Granada. She is co-author and photographer the book entitled *Wood, Wind & Water, A Story of the Opera House Cup Race of Nantucket*, released in June, 2002. She is also associate producer for the video documentary entitled *Wood, Wind & Water, Classic Yacht Racing in Antigua Regatta, 1999*.