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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.

Mr. Hakes started his career in teaching and research before entering government service. He was an assistant professor and subsequently an associate professor of Political Science at the University of New Orleans from 1970 through 1977. Mr. Hakes has published widely on a variety of subjects, including articles on the judicial recruitment process during the Carter Administration and the impact of Democratic Party reform on the South. Since entering government in 1977, Mr. Hakes has held federal positions at the Agency for International Development, the Department of Interior, and the Executive Office of the President. He also worked for Florida Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham, including stints as state energy director and the governor's chief of staff . Mr. Hakes graduated from Wheaton College. He earned an MA and a PhD from Duke University in Political Science.