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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.

Wayne Lord is also a Georgia State University international business professor with extensive connections in Georgia’s corporate, educational and legislative communities.He has held a number of leadership roles at non-profit organizations and companies over three decades of international trade and business experience. Before joining Georgia State University, he worked as a corporate relations officer with Gold Kist, Inc. and Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation.

Collins was born in London in 1937, the younger daughter of Elsa Bessant and Joseph William Collins, a theatrical agent whose clients included Shirley Bassey, The Beatles and Tom Jones. Collins began in acting roles, in a series of British B movies in the 1950s. She also made appearances in the 1960s ITC television series *Danger Man* and *The Saint* before giving up an on-screen career. She has since played herself in a few television series including *Minder*. Jackie Collins started writing as a teenager, making up steamy stories her schoolmates paid to devour. Her first book, *The World is Full of Married Men* became a sensational bestseller because of its open sexuality and the way it dealt honestly with the double standard. *Hollywood Wives*, a #1 New York Times bestseller, was made into one of ABC's highest-rated miniseries starring Anthony Hopkins and Candice Bergen. Ms. Collins lives in Los Angeles, California. Her hobbies are soul music, taking photographs and driving to exotic locations so that she can write about them later.

Chuck Palahniuk's previous novels include the bestselling* Fight Club*, which was made into a film by director David Fincher, *Choke*, which was made into a film by director Clark Gregg; *Lullaby*, *Haunted*, *Rant*, and *Pygmy*. He is also the author of *Fugitives* and *Refugees*, a nonfiction profile of Portland, Oregon, published as part of the Crown Journeys series, and the nonfiction collection *Stranger Than Fiction*. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.

Andre Dubus III has worked as a private investigator, corrections counselor and bounty hunter. As an actor, he has appeared in numerous stage plays and three independent films. He is also a general contractor and carpenter. Andre teaches writing at Tufts University and Emerson College in the Boston area and is the author of one story collection, The Cage Keeper and other Stories, and two novels, Bluesman and most recently, House of Sand and Fog (which was a finalist for the 1999 National Book Award). Dubus has garnered other distinctions, including a Push Cart Prize and a 1985 National Magazine Award for Fiction. He has also been published in Best American Essays 1994, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times Book Review and numerous literary reviews. Andre Dubus III is the son of the acclaimed and recently deceased writer Andre Dubus.

Lita Hooper is a poet, photographer, film producer and educator. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Crux: Conversations in Words and Images from South Africa to South USA, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem First Decade, Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art, and Tempu Tumpu/walking Naked: African Women's Poetic Self-portrait. She is the author of two chapbooks, Legacy and The Journal of Sojourner Truth, and a critical biography, Art of Work: The Art and Work of Haki Madhubuti. Her work has also been published in online and print journals and magazines, including poetrymidwest, Drumvoices Revue, Essence Magazine and Pluck!

E. Lynn Harris was born in Flint, Michigan and raised, along with three sisters, in Little Rock, Arkansas. He attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville where he was the school's first black yearbook editor, the first black male Razorbacks cheerleader, and the president of his fraternity. He graduated with honors with a degree in journalism. Anchor published *Invisible Life* as a trade paperback in 1994, and thus his career as an author officially began.

As an administrator, curator, writer and educator, Stuart Horodner operates in the space between artists and audiences, empowering all constituencies in the process. He makes lists and layouts, writes grants, gives lectures, and moderates panel discussions. He installs artworks in gallery spaces and defines or defends his intentions for doing so with precise and passionate language.

Though Princess Kasune Zulu is not technically a member of Zambian royalty, she has emerged as one of Africa's most prominent activists in combating the scourge of acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Both of Zulu's parents and two of her siblings were felled by the deadly pandemic, which has swept swiftly through sub-Saharan Africa since it was first discovered in the early 1980s, and she herself has tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, the predictor for AIDS.