Karen Abbott is a journalist who has been a staff member of Philadelphia magazine and Philadelphia Weekly.

Megan Abbott has taught literature, writing, and film at New York University and at the State University of New York at Oswego.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is recognized by Sports Illustrated and Time magazine as history’s greatest basketball player.

Novelist, biographer, and poet Peter Ackroyd is the chief book reviewer for The Times (London) and a regular broadcaster on radio.

Amir D. Aczel is the author of fourteen books, including the international bestseller Fermat's Last Theorem and The Mystery of the Aleph.

Scott Adams launched Dilbert in 1989, and it now appears daily in more than 2,000 newspapers in sixty-five countries, making it one of the most successful comic strips in history.

Aravind Adiga is a former correspondent for Time magazine and has also been published in the Financial Times.

Lesley Adkins, a historian and an archaeologist, is the author of Empires of the Plain.

Roy Adkins, a historian and an archaeologist, is the author of the bestselling Nelson’s Trafalgar: The Battle That Changed the World.

Trace Adkins learned to play guitar at an early age and, after signing with Capitol Records, has released seven solo albums.

Laila Al-Arian is a freelance journalist who has written for the Dupont Current newspaper and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

Robert Alexander is the author of the bestselling novel The Kitchen Boy.

Daniel Altman has written for The Economist and the New York Times and is now a columnist for the International Herald Tribune.

Daniel G. Amen, M.D., is a clinical neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and brain-imaging expert who heads the world-renowned Amen Clinics.

Christopher Andersen is the critically acclaimed author of twenty-five books, which have been translated into twenty-six languages worldwide.

Douglas A. Anderson, a leading American Tolkien scholar, is acknowledged as the worldwide expert on the textual history of The Hobbit.

Fred Anderson is a professor of history at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the author of Crucible of War.

Joan Anderson, is the author of A Year by the Sea, An Unfinished Marriage, and A Walk on the Beach.

John Anderson is the author of Burning Down the House and Art Held Hostage.

Kevin J. Anderson, one of the most popular writers currently working in the science fiction genre, is the author of more than ninety novels, forty-one of which have appeared on national or international bestseller lists.

Taylor Anderson teaches at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, and is the author of The Life and Tools of the Rocky Mountain Free Trapper.

Journalist Gustavo Arellano is the creator and writer of the popular Ask a Mexican! column for the OC Weekly in Orange County, California.

Kelley Armstrong is the author of Bitten and Stolen, the first two books in her Women of the Otherworld series.

Karen Armstrong is the author of numerous books on religious affairs, including Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions and The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism.

Robert Asahina, a former editor at George, Harper's, the New York Times Book Review, and The Public Interest, is currently a visiting scholar at the Asian/Pacific/American Studies Program at New York University.

Isaac Asimov, who was named "Grand Master of Science Fiction" by the Science Fiction Writers of America, entertained and educated readers of all ages for close to five decades.

Ace Atkins, an Alabama native, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 while at the Tampa Tribune for his investigation of the real-life murders of Charlie Wall and others in 1950s Tampa. He is the author of four Nick Travers novels---Crossroad Blues, Leavin' Trunk Blues, Dark End of the Street, and Dirty South. And, yes, Ace is his real name.

Oliver August was the youngest-ever New York correspondent for the Times of London.

Sandi Ault, a former journalist and newspaper editor, has taught writing for many years. She is also a volunteer firefighter as well as a Fire Information Officer on local and national wildfires. She lives in Lyons, Colorado with her husband, cat, and wolf, Tiwa.

Jane Austen's delightful, carefully wrought novels of manners---Pride and Prejudice and Emma among them---are those rare books that offer us a glimpse at the mores of a specific period while addressing the complexities of love, honor, and responsibility that still intrigue us today.

Paul Auster was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1947. He is the author of numerous novels, screenplays, and works of nonfiction. His other titles include poet, translator, and film director. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, the author Siri Hustvedt.

Richard Baer is the medical director of Medicare in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio.

Nicholson Baker has published seven novels and three works of nonfiction, including Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper.

Said to be the greatest French novelist of the 19th century, Balzac paints all the "species" of 19th century society with utmost realism.

Susan Shapiro Barash is an established writer of nonfiction women's issue books and has authored nine books including A Passion For More: Wives Reveal the Affairs That Make or Break Their Marriages, Second Wives: The Pitfalls and Rewards of Marrying Widowers and Divorced Men, and Mothers-in-Law and Daughters-in-Law: Love, Hate, Rivalry and Reconciliation.

Steven Barnes has been a novelist and television writer for the last twenty-five years.

Kim Barnouin is a former model.

Michael Barone is a senior writer at U.S. News and World Report.

Richard Bausch is the award-winning author of eleven novels and seven volumes of short stories. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, and other publications.

Max H. Bazerman is the Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School.

Mario Beauregard is an associate professor in the Departments of Radiology and Psychology at the Université de Montréal (Canada).

Joy Behar, currently a cohost of ABC's The View, is among today's leading comic talents.

Michael J. Behe is a professor of biological sciences at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.

Jennifer Belle is the author of two critically acclaimed, widely translated novels: Going Down and High Maintenance.

Vanora Bennett is an award-winning journalist who writes a weekly column for The Times (London) Web site, TimesOnline.

E. C. Bentley was a was a popular English novelist and humorist of the early twentieth century.

Mischa Berlinski was born in New York in 1973. He studied classics at the University of California at Berkeley and at Columbia University. He has worked as a journalist in Thailand. He lives in Rome.

The Reverend A. R. Bernard is the founder and CEO of the Christian Cultural Center and founder of the Brooklyn Preparatory School in New York City.

David Bernstein is executive creative director at The Gate Worldwide, the second-oldest ad agency in the United States.

Margaret Bernstein is an award-winning journalist at the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio.

William J. Bernstein, an American financial theorist, is the author of The Intelligent Asset Allocator and The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio.

Stephen Berry is an assistant professor of history at the University of Georgia and the author of All That Makes a Man: Love and Ambition in the Civil War South.

Stanley Bing is a columnist for Fortune magazine and the bestselling author of Sun Tzu Was a Sissy.

Christina Binkley is a senior special writer with the Wall Street Journal in Los Angeles.

Martin Binks, Ph.D., is the director of behavioral health and the research director at the Duke Diet & Fitness Center.

Matt Birkbeck is an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in The New York Times, Reader's Digest, and other periodicals, and is the author of A Beautiful Child and A Deadly Secret: The Strange Disappearance of Kathie Durst. He lives in Pennsylvania.

Matt Birkbeck is an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in The New York Times, Reader's Digest, and other periodicals, and is the author of A Beautiful Child and A Deadly Secret: The Strange Disappearance of Kathie Durst. He lives in Pennsylvania.

Simon Blackburn is a professor of philosophy at the University of Cambridge.

Pete Blackshaw is executive vice president of strategic services at Nielsen Online.

EDWIN BLACK is the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of IBM and the Holocaust, The Transfer Agreement, and War Against the Weak.

Matthew Blakeslee is a freelance science writer based in Los Angeles.

Sandra Blakeslee is a science correspondent at the New York Times who specializes in the brain sciences.

R. Howard Bloch is Sterling Professor of French and Director of the Division of the Humanities at Yale University.

Stefan Merrill Block graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2004. The Story of Forgetting is his first novel.

Lary Bloom’s writing spans an array of genres---nonfiction and fiction, plays, magazine pieces, and columns for the New York Times.

Mark Booth has worked in publishing for over twenty years and is currently in charge of Century, an imprint of Random House UK.

Journalist Fergus M. Bordewich has written on American history as well as human rights and other issues, and he is the author of Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America’s First Civil Rights Movement.

Gabor Boritt is director of the Civil War Institute and the Fluhrer Professor of Civil War Studies at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Jennifer Finney Boylan is a professor of English at Colby College and the author of the bestseller She’s Not There.

Travis Bradberry, Ph.D., is the president and cofounder of TalentSmart, a think tank and consultancy.

Bill Bradley served three terms as the U.S. senator from New Jersey.

James Brady commanded a rifle platoon during the Korean War and was awarded the Bronze Star for valor.

Rodric Braithwaite is also the author of "Across the Moscow River: The World Turned Upside Down." He was British ambassador to Moscow from 1988 to 1992 and now lives in London.

Marlon Brando appeared in more than forty films, including The Wild One, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Apocalypse Now, and won Academy Awards for his performances in On the Waterfront and The Godfather. His autobiography, Songs My Mother Taught Me, was published in 1994.

Michael Braungart is a chemist and the founder of the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA) in Hamburg, Germany.

Tom Breitling, cofounder of Travelscape.com, runs an independent film production company in Las Vegas.

Andrew Bridge is a dedicated and vocal advocate for children in foster care.

Pope Brock is the author of Indiana Gothic and a former staff writer at GQ.

Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855) was an acclaimed English novelist and poet. She is best know for her masterpiece Jane Eyre, but she is also the author of Shirley and The Professor.

Emily Brontë (1818–1848) authored the eighteenth-century romance Wuthering Heights, her only novel, as well as a volume of poetry together with her sisters Charlotte and Anne.

Richard Brookhiser is the author of What Would the Founders Do? and the writer and host of the critically acclaimed PBS documentary Rediscovering George Washington.

Marcus Brotherton, a former newspaper reporter and a professional writer, is the author or coauthor of seventeen books.

Philip Delves Broughton served as the New York and Paris bureau chief for the Daily Telegraph of London from 1998 to 2004, and his work has also appeared in the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Janet Browne is the author of Charles Darwin: Voyaging and Charles Darwin: The Power of Place, a landmark two-volume biography of Charles Darwin.

Zbigniew Brzezinski served as national security adviser to President Carter from 1977 to 1981.

Scottish writer best known for his thriller/spy novels including "The Thirty Nine Steps" and "Greenmantle"

Mary Buffett's own business acumen can be measured by her success as CEO of Superior Assembly, a very successful commercial and motion picture editing company, with clients including Madonna and Coca-Cola. She lives in Southern California.

English born novelist Frances Hodgson Burnett was best known for her children’s stories, particularly Little Lord Fauntlery, The Secret Garden, and A Little Princess.

American novelist who created the world famous Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, character and the invincible John Carter of the Mars Series.

Chandler Burr is the New York Times perfume critic and the author of The Emperor of Scent: A Story of Perfume, Obsession, and the Last Mystery of the Senses.

John T. Cacioppo is the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago.

Andrea Cagan is a freelance writer who has worked with many bestselling authors.

Colin G. Calloway is Professor of History and Samson Occom Professor of Native American Studies at Dartmouth College. His most recent work, One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West Before Lewis and Clark, received the Ray Allen Billington Prize, the Merle Curti Award, and many other prizes, and was named one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year.

Donald Cammell, writer, actor, producer, and director, was best known for his films Performance, Demon Seed, and Wild Side.

James Campbell is the author of The Final Frontiersman and has written for Outside magazine, as well as many other publications.

Mike Carey is the acclaimed writer of Lucifer and Hellblazer (now filmed as Constantine).

Peter Carey is the author of nine novels, including the Booker Prize-winning Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelly Gang.

Philip Carlo grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, amidst the world's highest concentration of Mafia members. His intimate knowledge of their walk and their talk helped him become a successful crime writer. His breakthrough, the critically acclaimed The Night Stalker, chronicles the brutal career of serial killer Richard Ramirez. Carlo lives in New York.

Kristine Carlson is coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Don't Sweat the Small Stuff in Love and Don't Sweat the Small Stuff for Women.

Andrew Carroll is the founder of the Legacy Project (www.WarLetters.com)...

English writer and mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, was especially known for his children’s books, ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND and THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS.

Sean B. Carroll is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a professor of genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Howie Carr is a popular radio talk show host who is syndicated across New England. Known for his scathing exposes of local politicians, he has raised lots of eyebrows and voices over the years. He's famous for pushing the envelope and not regretting that he went too far. He has also been featured regularly on NBC, MSNBC, C-SPAN, Court TV, CNN, and the Fox News Network.

Evan Carton is professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin.

June Casagrande writes a popular and very humorous "A Word, Please" grammar column for five Los Angeles Times Community News papers.

Fidel Castro is the current president of Cuba, though his duties have been transferred to the first vice president due to his failing health.

One of the great American writers of the 20th century, Willa Cather enjoyed distinguished careers as journalist, editor, and fiction writer. She is most often thought of as a chronicler of the pioneer American West.

Douglas Century is the author of Barney Ross and Street Kingdom, and coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Takedown.

Jonathan Chait is the senior editor at the New Republic and writes the magazine’s signature TRB column.

Ram Charan is the go-to adviser for corporate directors and CEOs and coauthor of the bestsellers Execution and Confronting Reality

From 1997 to 2002, Sarah Chayes served as an overseas correspondent for NPR, reporting from Paris and the Balkans, as well as covering conflicts in Algeria.