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Georgia Labor Commissioner and noted historian Michael L. Thurmond was born in rural Clarke County, Georgia on January 5, 1953, the youngest of the nine children of Sidney and Vanilla Thurmond. For eleven years he attended all black schools, graduating from consolidated Clarke Senior High School in 1971 as co-president of the student council and holder of the 100-yard dash record. At Paine College he started a student paper, was class president and graduated cum laude with B.A. in philosophy and religion in 1975. He graduated from the University of South Carolina Law School. In the summer of 1975, he helped start the black *Athens Voice newspaper* and upon graduation from law school in 1978, published *A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History*. Thurmond returned to Athens to practice law and took an active role in civic affairs. In 1986, he became the first African American to be elected to the Georgia General Assembly from Clarke County since Reconstruction. In 1994, Governor Zell Miller selected Thurmond to head Georgia's transition from welfare to work. He became distinguished practitioner/lecturer at the University of Georgia's Carl Vinson Institute of Government. Thurmond became the first African American elected Georgia State Labor Commissioner in 1998. As commissioner, he oversees some four thousand employees while serving 90,000 families. Thurmond chairs the Martin Luther King, Jr. Georgia State Holiday Commission, and serves on the board of curators of the Georgia Historical Society. He published a second book entitled, *Freedom: An African American History of Georgia*. Thurmond and his wife Zola have a daughter and are members of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Athens, Georgia.

Jack Riggs’ writing has been published in *The Crescent Review*, *The Chattahoochee Review*, *The Habersham Review*, and *Writing, Making It Real*. In 2000, he was selected as an “Emerging New Southern Voice” at the Millennial Gathering of Writers of the New South at Vanderbilt University. He has been a finalist in the Glimmer Train Fiction contest and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Dr. John Wells Kuykendall, PhD, DD, received a Bachelor of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary, a Master of Sacred Theology from Yale Divinity School, and a MA and PhD from Princeton University. Prior to accepting the presidency of Davidson College, Kuykendall served as the Presbyterian campus pastor for Princeton University. He also served as professor of religion and campus pastor for Auburn University. In 1982, he was awarded the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award and was selected as the Outstanding Teacher in the School of Arts of Sciences for Auburn University. During his tenure as president, Davidson College completed a $160 million capital campaign, the largest financial campaign ever mounted by a liberal arts college at the time. Davidson also witnessed the construction of Baker Sports Complex and the Visual Arts Center, and six upperclassmen apartment buildings. Two programs receiving national attention were, also, added to the college curriculum: the Dean Rusk Program in International Studies and the medical humanities program.

A native of France where she was trained as a dancer, Brigitte Byrd is the author of *Fence above the Sea* (Ahsahta, 2005) and *The Dazzling Land* (Black Zinnias, 2008). Her third collection *Song of a Living Room* is scheduled for fall 2009 (Ahsahta). Brigitte's work is forthcoming in the anthology *Online Writing:The Best of the First Ten Years* (Snow*Vigate Press, with an introduction by Brian Evenson). New poems recently appeared in *Lilies and Cannonballs*, *Quarter After Eight*, *Tarpaulin Sky*, *Coconut Poetry*, and *Taiga*. Her work has been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize, and she is the first-prize poetry winner of the St. Petersburg (Russia) Summer Literary Seminar 2000. Brigitte received a PhD in Creative Writing from Florida State University 2003. She teaches Creative Writing at Clayton State University. She is also an editorial reviewer for *Confluence: The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies* and writes micro-reviews for *Oranges & Sardines*.

Scott Eric Kaufman was christened a Doctor of Philosophy of English by University of California, Irvine in the Summer of 2008. He earned his B.A. from Louisiana State University. His scholarly interests once included everything and he meant everything pertaining to American literature and appropriations of evolutionary theory c. 1890-1910. Then he finished his dissertation and never wants to hear tell of it again. In addition to Acephalous, you can witness him bloviate at The Valve and The Edge of the American West.

JOHN BURNHAM SCHWARTZ is the author of the novels The Commoner, Claire Marvel, Bicycle Days, and Reservation Road, which has been made into a film based on his screenplay, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, and Jennifer Connelly. His work has been translated into twenty languages, and has appeared in many publications, including The New Yorker and The New York Times. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and their son.

Charles E. Cobb, Jr. is a distinguished journalist and former member of *National Geographic Magazine's* editorial staff. He currently is Senior Writer and Diplomatic Correspondent for AllAfrica.com, the leading online provider of news from and about Africa. From 1962-1967 he served as a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Mississippi. He began his journalism career in 1974 as a reporter for WHUR Radio in Washington, D.C. In 1976 he joined the staff of National Public Radio as a foreign affairs reporter, bringing to that network its first regular coverage of Africa. From 1985 to 1997, Cobb was a *National Geographic* staff member, traveling the globe to write stories on places from Eritrea to Russia's Kuril Islands. He is also the co-author, with civil rights organizer and educator Robert P. Moses, of *Radical Equations, Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project*.

Kim D. Reimann (Ph.D., Harvard University, 2001) is an assistant professor of political science at Georgia State University. Her research interests include NGOs and international politics, Japanese politics and political economy, political economy and international relations of East Asia, transnational social movements, the nonprofit sector, and environmental politics.

Debra Neuman is a nationally recognized leader of external relations with a proven track record in expanding development efforts to win the hearts and minds of supporters. As vice chancellor of external relations and president of the UC San Diego Foundation, she serves as the senior advancement executive for the university with overall leadership of fund-raising and donor relations, alumni affairs, university communications and public affairs. Before joining UC San Diego, Neuman was senior vice president, external relations, at CARE USA, one of the worlds largest humanitarian organizations fighting global poverty. Based in CAREs Atlanta headquarters, she exceeded the organizations fund-raising targets each year; assembled a cohesive, dedicated team of professionals in eight locations; and built and stewarded a brand strategy and campaign to raise CAREs visibility in the U.S. Prior to CARE, Neuman enjoyed an extensive career at IBM Corporation, including vice president of communications for Global Services and IBM Americas, and senior director, corporate media relations. Neuman received her B.A. from Wesleyan University, and has studied in business programs at Cambridge and Columbia Universities.