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Patrick O’Donnell is the critically acclaimed author of *Beyond Valor*, which won the Colby Circle Award for Outstanding Military History, as well as *Into the Rising Sun*, *Operatives*, *Spies*, and *Saboteurs*, *We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder With the Marines Who Took Fallujah*, and most recently *The Brenner Assignment*. As a combat historian, O’Donnell was the only civilian to spend three months in Iraq in uniform and conduct oral histories of our troops in battle. He literally fought with the marines in Fallujah, was ambushed several times, and dragged a mortally wounded marine from battle. O’Donnell is also the founder of the Drop Zone (www.thedropzone.org), an award-winning web site dedicated to preserving the oral histories of veterans.

John Heilemann is the national political correspondent and columnist for New York magazine. An award-winning journalist and author of Pride Before the Fall: The Trials of Bill Gates and the End of the Microsoft Era, he is a former staff writer for The New Yorker, Wired, and The Economist. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. is the national political correspondent and columnist for New York magazine. An award-winning journalist and author of Pride Before the Fall: The Trials of Bill Gates and the End of the Microsoft Era, he is a former staff writer for The New Yorker, Wired, and The Economist. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Ted Conover is the author most recently of the National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee Newjack: *Guarding Sing Sing*. His work is characterized by his commitment to inhabit the lives of his subjects, from prison guards to illegal immigrants. He currently lives in New York City.

Eric Nelson is chiefly interested in the history of republican political theory, the reception of classical political thought in early-modern Europe, theories of property, and the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. Nelson is the author of *The Greek Tradition in Republican Thought*, and editor of Hobbes's translations of the *Iliad* and *Odyssey* for the Clarendon Edition of the Works of Thomas Hobbes. His work may also be found in *Renaissance Quarterly*, *The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory*, and *The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Philosophy*, among other publications.

Mark Halperin is editor-at-large and senior political analyst for *Time* magazine. He is the author of *The Undecided Voter's Guide to the Next President* and the coauthor of *The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008*. He has covered six presidential elections, including those during his decade as the political director for ABC News. He lives in Manhattan.

Paula Butturni grew up within the confines of New England, and since then has made up for lost time by traveling all over the world. She has worked in overseas bureaus in London, Madrid, Rome, and Warsaw for United Press International and the Chicago Tribune.

Jerome Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and has received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His novels include *Johnny One-Eye* and *The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson*. He lives in Paris and New York.

James McGrath Morris is the author of *The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism*, which was selected as a *Washington Post* Best Book of 2004. He is the editor of the monthly *Biographer's Craft*, and his writing has appeared in the *Washington Post*, the *New York Observer*, and the *Baltimore Sun*.

Chang-rae Lee has written four novels and numerous short stories. His novels have won many awards and citations, including the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, the American Book Award, and the ALA Notable Book of the Year Award. He has also has also written stories and articles for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Time (Asia), Granta, Conde Nast Traveler, Food & Wine, and many other publications.

**Paul Kirshen** has been conducting research on climate change since 1988. An internationally recognized expert in integrated water resources management, he has developed detailed models mapping the impact of sea level rise on coastal communities in New England, Florida, and California. Dr. Kirshen taught at Tufts University, prior to joining Battelle, an independent non-profit research and development organization. At Battelle, he leads an initiative to develop a climate change adaptation practice that will address the multidimensional impacts of climate change.

Gretchen Rubin’s most recent book is *The Happiness Project*, and she is also the author of *Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill*; *Forty Ways to Look at JFK*; *Power Money Fame Sex: A User’s Guide*; and *Profane Waste*. Her daily blog, The Happiness Project, appears on *Slate* and the *Huffington Pos*t and ranks in the Technorati “Top 2K.” There, she recounts her adventures and insights as she grapples with the challenges of how to be happier. She also blogs for RealSimple.com. Rubin has talked to Matt Lauer on *Today* and to Brian Lamb on *Booknotes*, and she has been profiled in *The New Yorker’s* “Talk of the Town” and Psychology Today. She has also been featured on such radio shows as the *Leonard Lopate Show*, *Talk of the Nation*, and *Voice of America*. Rubin is a graduate of Yale and Yale Law School. Raised in Kansas City, she currently lives in New York City with her husband and two young daughters.