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Barbara Sjoholm was born in Long Beach, California, but has spent most of her adult life in the Pacific Northwest and Europe. She now lives in Port Townsend, on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. As a novelist, memoirist, translator, and mystery writer, Barbara Sjoholm has been both prolific and innovative. Many readers know her as Barbara Wilson, author of two successful, offbeat mystery series: one with Pam Nilsen, *A Printer in Seattle*, and a second with Cassandra Reilly, an *American Translator of Spanish*, based in London. These mysteries have sold over 100,000 copies and are translated into five languages. They cross boundaries in making feminist and social issues part of the plot. Gaudi Afternoon, set in Barcelona, was awarded a British Crime Writers' award and a Lambda Literary Award. In 2001, a film of *Gaudi Afternoon* was released, with Judy Davis in the title role of Cassandra Reilly and Marcia Gay Harden as Frankie. Barbara has also published several collections of short stories and three novels.

Kevin Loughlin, MD, MBA, completed degrees at Princeton University, New York Medical College, Harvard University, and Boston University. He is currently the director of Urologic Research at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. He has been selected for "Best Doctors in America" and "Top Doctors" by The Center for the Study of Services in Washington, D.C., and has published more than two hundred articles, abstracts, and letters in prominent publications such as *New England Journal of Medicine*.

Dr. DeMaria serves as medical director of the Bureau of Infectious Disease Prevention, Response and Services in the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. He is also the state epidemiologist for Massachusetts. He is a graduate of Boston University and Harvard Medical School. He trained in internal medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York and in infectious diseases at Boston City Hospital and the Boston University School of Medicine. Prior to joining the Department of Public Health in 1989, he was an infectious diseases consultant in private practice and prior to that on the staff of The Maxwell Finland Laboratory for Infectious Diseases and Section of Infectious Diseases, Boston City Hospital and Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. DeMaria is a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and serves on committees of the Massachusetts Medical Society and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, and on the boards of the Massachusetts Public Health Association and The Public Health Museum.

Philip Cash received his PhD from Boston College and is Professor Emeritus at Emmanuel College. He has written extensively on medicine in Colonial Massachusetts.

Katherine Paterson is the author of twelve novels for children and young people including *Bridge to Terabithia* and J*acob Have I Loved*, Newbery Winners in 1978 and 1981, and *The Great Gilly Hopkins*, a Newbery Honor Book. *The Great Gilly Hopkins* and *The Master Puppeteer* were National Book Award winners in 1979 and 1977. Her novel, *Lyddie*, set in Vermont and Massachusetts in the 1840's was the 1994 United States representative for writing on the Honor List of the International Board of Books for Young People. Other award winning novels include, *Flip-Flop Girl*, which was an ALA Notable Book, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a Parent's Choice Story Book Award winner in 1994 and was named a Notable Book of 1994 by *The New York Times*. Her novel, *Jip, His Story*, is the recipient of the 1997 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, an ALA Notable Book and a Best Book for Young Adults. *Preacher's Boy*, published in 1999, received the Jefferson Cup from the Virginia Library Association. Ms. Paterson was born in Quinn Jingo, China. She is a graduate of King College, Bristol, Tennessee and holds master's degrees from both the Presbyterian School of Christian Education, Richmond, Virginia and Union Theological Seminary, New York City. The Patersons live in Barre where Dr. Paterson recently retired as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. They are the parents of four grown children. They have two granddaughters, a grandson, and are expecting another grandchild in the fall.

He is one of the nation's most famous authors. David Halberstam was born on April 10, 1934, in New York. David Halberstam was well-known for his writing and reporting on the civil rights movement. During the late 50's and early 60's at the *Nashville Tennessean*, he covered stories and activities related to the civil rights movement. Halberstam was assigned to cover the first sit-ins in February, 1960, and he used his experiences to trace the civil rights movement from 1960 to 1965. His book, *The Children*, is based on these experiences. He looks at the events through the perspective of the student activists who participated in these sit-ins.

Kathleen Dalton is Cecil F.P. Bancroft Instructor of History at Phillips Academy Andover and an external fellow of Boston University's International History Institute. Author of *Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life (2002)* and *A Portrait of a School: Coeducation at Andover (1986)*, she has spoken widely about Theodore Roosevelt, including appearances on *C-SPAN's Book TV, the History Channel, the Arts and Entertainment Channel*, and public television; her writing has appeared in numerous newspapers. She is currently working on her next book, *The White Lilies and the Iron Boot*; a story of four friends (including Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt) and their attempts to shape U.S. foreign relations during a dangerous time.