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Robert Hicks, the author of THE WIDOW OF THE SOUTH, was born and raised in South Florida. In 1974 he moved to Williamson County, Tennessee; in 1979 he moved to 'Labor in Vain,' a late-eighteenth-century log cabin, near Leiper's Fork, Tennessee. Working both as a music publisher and in artist management in both country and rock music, Hick's interests remain broad and varied. A partner in the B. B. King's Blues clubs in Nashville, Memphis and Los Angeles, Hicks serves as 'Curator of Vibe' of the corporation. [Source: http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-hicks-robert.asp]

Justin Stelter has always had his hands in the dirt. From his early years of playing with Tonka trucks in his parents' garden to planting heirloom peonies last spring at Historic Carnton Plantation, he remains a hands-on gardener. Justin has spent his entire working career, both sides of his university years, within a garden. In July of 2003 he became head gardener at Historic Carnton Plantation. This garden is reconstructed from the bones of the original 1847 kitchen/ornamental garden and its evolution from 1847 through 1869. While head gardener, Justin has installed one of the largest historic daffodil displays in the country, a species hosta collection, and is currently installing an heirloom peony collection consisting of varieties available prior to 1869. He is a member of The American Horticultural Society, Southern Garden History Society, American Rose Society, Middle Tennessee Daffodil Society, Middle Tennessee Daylily Society, Middle Tennessee Hosta Society, Nashville Rose Society and the Tennessee Native Plant Society. He is also the co-editor with Robert Hicks and John Bohlinger of *A Guitar and a Pen*. Currently, he is editing a guide to historic gardens in North America.

Bragg was born in Alabama, grew up there, and worked at several newspapers before joining the *New York Times* in 1994. He covered the murder and unrest in Haiti while a metro reporter there, then wrote about the Oklahoma City bombing, the Jonesboro killings, the Susan Smith trial and more as a national correspondent based in Atlanta. He later became Miami Bureau Chief for the *Times* just in time for Elian Gonzalez's arrival and the international battle for the little boy. He is now a roving correspondent based in New Orleans. He has twice won the prestigious American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award, and more than 50 writing awards in his 20-year career. In 1992, he was awarded a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University. He has taught writing in colleges and in newspaper news rooms. He is also the author of *Somebody Told Me*, a critically acclaimed collection of his newspaper stories.

Angelos Pangratis is the senior career official serving at the Delegation of the European Commission to the United States, in Washington, DC. He is the Deputy Head of Delegation, the Ambassador and Head of Delegation being John Bruton, ex-Prime Minister of Ireland. Angelos Pangratis is the former Ambassador and Head of Delegation for the European Commissions Delegation to Argentina (2003-05). He also served at senior functions in the Delegations of the European Commission in South Africa (1995-1997) and South Korea (1990-1994). Highlights of Mr. Pangratis' career at the EU's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, include being Head of Unit responsible for relations with China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, South Korea and Mongolia; Head of Unit for Personnel and Budget of the Directorate General: External Relations and Trade Policy ; Head of Investigation teams of the Anti-Dumping and Anti-Circumvention Division to name but a few positions. Mr. Pangratis has represented the European Commission at numerous Multilateral Organizations (WTO, OECD, Club de Paris, UNCTAD, others). Mr. Pangratis lectured at universities in the Czech Republic, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Korea, South Africa, Argentina and the United States. He had articles and interviews on EU matters published in many countries. Angelos Pangratis was born on the island of Corfu, Greece (1956), and is married with three children. Mr. Pangratis speaks Greek, French, English and Spanish. He has obtained a doctorate from the University of Paris I, Panthon Sorbonne (1983) in International Economics, Monetary Policies and Finance. This followed studies in Economics, European Studies and International Law at the Universities of St.-Etienne, Paris I and Paris II.

Karen Essex is an award-winning novelist and journalist and a screenwriter. She is the author of the national and international best-selling novel, *Leonardos Swans* (Doubleday 2006), about the rivalries among the powerful women painted by the great master when he was employed by the Duke of Milan. Continuing in the theme of womens influence upon culture and art, her latest novel, *Stealing Athena*, chronicles the story of the controversial Elgin Marbles from the points of view of two fascinating women, Mary Nisbet, Countess of Elgin, and Aspasia, mistress to Pericles. Essex was born and raised in New Orleans. She was graduated from Tulane University, attended graduate school at Vanderbilt University, and received an MFA in writing from Goddard College in Vermont. Shes appeared on *The Today Show* and *A Word on Words* hosted by John Seigenthaler, as well as other PBS and NPR programs. Shes lectured at the Chicago Museum of Art, and extensively at universities. Her books are taught in many college courses from creative writing to history to womens studies.

There is a certain personality type that pursues a job as a foreign correspondent in a war zone. After all, there are foreign correspondent jobs in Paris. But for Richard Engel, NBC's Middle East correspondent and the only television reporter who's continually covered the Iraq conflict since it began, it's clearly less a job than a calling. Especially when you consider, upon graduating from Stanford, he picked up and headed to Cairo with only some small savings and a passion for finding the story. Born and raised in Manhattan, Engel has now lived in the Middle East for 10 years. After a three-year stint covering the Palestine uprising against Israel, he was freelancing for the BBC and ABC in 2002 when he signed with NBC, and he's been there ever since. By most accounts he's a thorough and dogged reporter; he speaks and reads fluent Arabic (in addition to Spanish and Italian) and has been known to go house to house to report a story. As Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz wrote, "Among the small circle of journalists who risk their lives in the region, Engel commands considerable respect."

Hickman's first book, *Dreams of the Peaceful Dragon*, an account of a journey on horseback across the forbidden Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, was followed by *The Quetzal Summer*, a novel about love and death in the Andes, for which she was shortlisted for the *Sunday Times *Young British Writer of the Year. In 1993 she published a second travel book , *A Trip to the Light Fantastic* (later re-issued as *Travels with a Circus*), an account of a year spend living and working with a Mexican circus, for which she was short-listed for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, and which later became one of the Independent's Books of the Year. After the birth of her first child she turned to writing history books. The first of these *Daughters of Britannia: the Lives and Times of Diplomatic Wives* rose to number two in the *Sunday Times* Bestseller lists, and remained in the top ten for five consecutive months. It was adapted into a highly successful twenty part series for BBC Radio 4's *Women's Hour*, and has sold nearly 200,000 copies to date.

Gail Ifshin has worked in the international arena in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors for many years, serving as chief economist for the Hungarian-American Enterprise Fund and as program director for the Institute for Democracy in Vietnam. She also has worked in the White House for the Council of Economic Advisers and was later appointed to the US Department of Agriculture's Advisory Committee on Emerging Democracies.

Bernadette P. Paolo was named president and CEO of The Africa Society in 2006. Prior to assuming this position, she served vice president of the National Summit on Africa. She is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the West Virginia Bar. She is on the board of the Women's Intercultural Network.

Kathy Cox has been state superintendent of schools since 2003 and in that time, she has set Georgia's schools on a path toward excellence. Guided by the Georgia Department of Education's Strategic Plan, Superintendent Cox has overseen many improvements to public education in Georgia, including: the creation of a new state curriculum and new graduation requirements, expansion of the state's Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education programs, as well as an increase in public school choice by expanding the number of charter schools in Georgia, overseeing the creation of career academies and the creation and operation of the state's on-line learning portal, Georgia Virtual School. Under Superintendent Cox's leadership, Georgia has seen unprecedented gains in student achievement: Georgia students are scoring at or above the national average on reading and writing tests and the state's graduation rate is at its highest level. Superintendent Cox was a classroom teacher for 15 years and served two terms in the state legislature before being elected to the Georgia's highest educational post in 2002. She was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2006. In September 2008, Superintendent Cox made national headlines by becoming the first contestant to win $1 million on Fox's *Are You Smarter than a 5th-Grader?* She is donating the money to Georgia's 3 state schools for the deaf and blind.