Andrew Blauner is a literary agent and the editor of seven previous anthologies, including Coach: 25 Writers Reflect on People Who Made a Difference, The Peanuts Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life, and In Their Lives: Great Writers on Great Beatles Songs.
Alan Lightman is a novelist, physicist, and essayist. Formerly an assistant professor of astronomy at Harvard and senior lecturer in physics at MIT, he is currently Professor of the Practice of the Humanities at MIT. He is the author of six novels, the most well known of which are “Einstein's Dreams” and “The Diagnosis,” and a dozen nonfiction books on science, religion, and philosophy. His most recent books are Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine, “In Praise of Wasting Time,” and “Probable Impossibilities.“ Lightman's essays and articles have appeared in the Atlantic, Harper's, the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, and many other publications.
Zoë Pollak is a doctoral candidate in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Her writing has appeared in AGNI and Women’s Studies, and is forthcoming in the Hopkins Review and Sonnets from the American: An Anthology of Poems and Essays.
Jordan Salama is a writer whose essays and stories have appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times, Scientific American and other publications. A graduate of Princeton University, his first book, Every Day the River Changes, a journey down Colombia's Río Magdalena, will be published in November.
Stacey Vanek Smith is a longtime public radio reporter and host. She currently hosts NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money, a daily podcast covering business and economics. A native of Idaho, Stacey is a graduate of Princeton University, where she earned a BA in comparative literature and creative writing. She also holds a MS in journalism from Columbia University.
