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Dexter Filkins, a foreign correspondent for *The New York Times*, joined the newspaper in 2000. From March 2003 until August 2006, he was a correspondent in the paper's Baghdad bureau. In 2007 and 2008, Filkins was a fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University, where he was completing a book based on his experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is the author of *The Forever War*, published this month by Alfred A. Knopf. In 2001 and 2002, Filkins covered the war in Afghanistan. Filkins work in Iraq and Afghanistan has received a number of awards, including a George Polk award for his coverage of the assault on Falluja in November 2004. During the attack on Falluja, Filkins accompanied a company of Marines, a quarter of whom were killed or wounded in eight days. He has been a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize twice, from Iraq and Afghanistan. Prior to that, he was the New Delhi bureau chief for *The Los Angeles Times*. During that time, he witnessed the rise of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Filkins has an M Phil in International Relations from Oxford University.

Garrison Keillor has been host of public radio's *A Prairie Home Companion* for more than 35 years, where he has captivated millions of public radio listeners with his weekly "News from Lake Wobegon" monologues. Keillor is also the author of several books and a frequent contributor to national publications including *Time*, *The New Yorker*, and *National Geographic*, in addition to writing his own syndicated column. He has been awarded a National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment of the Humanities.

Gregory Heisler is a New York-based portrait photographer. He has received the Alfred Eisenstadt Award, the Leica Medal of Excellence, and the ASMP Corporate Photographer of the Year Award.

Helene Cooper is "Congo," a descendant of two Liberian dynasties traced back to the first ship of freemen that set sail from New York in 1820 to found Monrovia. For years the Cooper daughters, Helene, her sister Marlene, and Eunice blissfully enjoyed the trappings of wealth and advantage. But Liberia was like an unwatched pot of water left boiling on the stove. And on April 12, 1980, a group of soldiers staged a coup d'etat, assassinating President William Tolbert and executing his cabinet. The Coopers and the entire Congo class were now the hunted, being imprisoned, shot, tortured, and raped. After a brutal daylight attack by a ragtag crew of soldiers, Helene, Marlene, and their mother fled Liberia, for America. They left Eunice behind. A world away, Helene tried to assimilate as an American teenager. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill she found her passion in journalism, eventually becoming a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

Candace Bushnell is a writer based in New York City. She is best known for writing a column that became the basis of the hit TV-series, *Sex and the City*. Bushnell was born in the New England town of Glastonbury, Connecticut. However, at the age of 19 she shunned the idea of a more parochial life for the bright lights of New York in order to pursue her dreams of becoming a professional writer. Whilst enrolled at New York University, and juggling waitressing jobs, she wrote a children's book for publishers Simon and Schuster and received her first big paycheck of $1000. Candace is now currently working on three more novels, including a young-adult book about Carrie Bradshaw's teenage years in the city. She continues to capture the spirit of the place she has made her home with the flair and drive of a true New Yorker.

Muhtar Kent is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of The Coca-Cola Company.

Thomas Frank is the author of \_Pity the Billionaire, The Wrecking Crew,\_ and \_What's the Matter with Kansas?\_ A former columnist for \_The Wall Street Journal\_ and \_Harper's\_, Frank is the founding editor of \_The Baffler\_ and writes regularly for \_Salon\_. He lives outside Washington, D.C. His latest book is [Listen Liberal! Or, Whatever Happened to the Party of the People?](http://shop.harvard.com/book/9781627795395 "")

Eric Weiner always wanted to be a foreign correspondent. So he could hardly believe his good fortune when NPR dispatched him to India as the network's first full-time correspondent in that country. Weiner spent two years based in New Delhi, covering everything from an outbreak of bubonic plague to India's economic reforms, before moving on to other postings in Jerusalem and Tokyo. His commentary has appeared in *the Los Angeles Times*, *Slate* and *The New Republic*, among other publications. After traveling the world, he has settled in the Washington area.

Brad Meltzer is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Fate, as well as the bestsellers The Tenth Justice, Dead Even, The First Counsel, The Millionaires and The Zero Game. He is also one of the co-creators of the TV show, Jack & Bobby - and is the number one selling author of the critically acclaimed comic books, Identity Crisis and Justice League of America, for which he won the prestigious Eisner Award. His newest thriller, The Book of Lies, was just released. Raised in Brooklyn and Miami, Brad is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Columbia Law School. The Tenth Justice was his first published work and became an instant New York Times bestseller. Dead Even followed a year later and also hit the New York Times bestseller list, as have all six of his novels.

Hill Street Press published my *Truelove & Homegrown Tomatoes* in the spring of 2001. It became a southern best seller and they then sold the paperback rights to Simon & Schuster, who released that in August of 2003. Simon & Schuster also bought all the rights to my second novel, *Mater Biscuit*, which became book #2 in what Simon & Schuster calls the Homegrown series. *Mater Biscuit* hit the book shelves in April of 2004, and eager to preserve my recollections of a way of life that's quickly evaporating, I sat down and wrote book #3, *Those Pearly Gates*, released in September 2005. The Homegrown series has become for me a celebration of the gifts of my rural southern heritage. My fourth novel to be published, a stand-alone tale called *The Romance Readers' Book Club*, Penguin-Plume, December 18, 2007, is actually the second novel I started. It was tucked safely away while I wrote the second and third novels in the Homegrown series. Currently I am finishing up my fifth novel, tentatively titled *Judas That I Was*. My first literary journey "off the farm", it is set in my childhood hometown of Athens, Georgia.