James Patterson
author of Second Honeymoon

James Patterson has had more New York Times bestsellers than any other writer, ever, according to Guinness World Records. Since his first novel won the Edgar Award in 1977 James Patterson's books have sold more than 240 million copies. He is the author of the Alex Cross novels, the most popular detective series of the past twenty-five years, including Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider. Mr. Patterson also writes the bestselling Women's Murder Club novels, set in San Francisco, and the top-selling New York detective series of all time, featuring Detective Michael Bennett. He writes full-time and lives in Florida with his family.

Elin Hilderbrand
author of Beautiful Day

Elin Hilderbrand lives on Nantucket with her husband and their three young children. She grew up in Collegeville, PA, and traveled extensively before settling on Nantucket, which has been the setting for her eight previous novels. Hilderbrand is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the graduate fiction workshop at the University of Iowa.

Jo Robinson
author of Eating on the Wild Side

Jo Robinson is the author or co-author of 14 books of nonfiction. Her research on pastured animals has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time, Mother Jones, USA TODAY, Men's Health, the San Francisco Chronicle, Atlantic Monthly, and many other publications. She lives and works on Vashon Island, a rural island close to Seattle, WA.

Lauren Buekes
author of The Shining Girls

Lauren Beukes is a recipient of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, finished runner-up to Lev Grossman for the John W Campbell Award, was shortlisted for a plethora of other awards and received rave reviews from around the world including The New York Times and The Guardian. She lives in Cape Town, South Africa with her husband and her daughter.

Chris Kluwe
author of Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies

Chris Kluwe grew up in Southern California among a colony of wild chinchillas and didn't learn how to communicate outside of barking and howling until he was fourteen years old. He has played football in the NFL, once wrestled a bear for a pot of gold, and lies occasionally. He is also the eternal disappointment of his mother, who just can't understand why he hasn't cured cancer yet. Do you know why these bio things are in third person? I have no idea. Please tell me if you figure it out.

Marcia Clark
author of Killer Ambition

Marcia Clark began practicing law as a criminal defense attorney. She became a prosecutor in the L.A. District Attorney's Office in 1981, and spent ten years in the Special Trials Unit where she handled a number of high profile cases prior to the O.J. Simpson case, including the prosecution of stalker/murderer Robert Bardo.

In May of 1997, her book on the Simpson case, Without a Doubt was published and quickly rose to #1 on the New York Times, Wall St. Journal, Washington Post, LA Times, and Publisher's Weekly bestsellers lists.

William Sitwell
author of A History of Food in 100 Recipes

William Sitwell is the editor of Waitrose Kitchen magazine, can regularly be seen on TV programs such as BBC2's Food & Drink and Masterchef: The Professionals, and writes about food for a variety of newspapers and magazines. Following an early career in newspapers, he came to prominence in the food world after 1999 when he joined the then titled Waitrose Food Illustrated, of which he became editor in 2002. He subsequently won a string of awards, including "Editor of the Year" in 2005, for the magazine's writing, stories, design and photography. He spends his spare time growing vegetables, cooking, and making cider at his home in Northamptonshire, England, where he lives with his wife, Laura, and their children, Alice and Albert. This is his first book.

Regina O'Melveny
author of The Book of Madness and Cures

Regina O'Melveny's poetry has been published widely in literary journals, garnering several prizes. She grew up at the edge of pungent chaparral in La Mesa, California, and chose to enroll at Callison College--a school of International Studies at the University of the Pacific--almost solely based upon the fact that the second year would be spent in India. Thus began her many extended travels that would later inspire The Book of Madness and Cures, her first novel. She lives in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Liza Klaussmann
author of Tigers in Red Weather

Liza Klaussmann worked as a journalist for the New York Times for over a decade. She received a BA in Creative Writing from Barnard College, where she was awarded the Howard M. Teichman Prize for Prose. She lived in Paris for ten years and she recently completed with distinction an MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, in London, where she lives. She is the great-great-great granddaughter of Herman Melville.

Zoe Ferraris
author of Kingdom of Strangers

Zoe Ferraris moved to Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the first Gulf War to live with her then husband and his extended family of Saudi-Palestinian Bedouins. She has an MFA from Columbia University and is the author of two previous novels, Finding Nouf and City of Veils. She lives in San Francisco.

Patrick Somerville
author of This Bright River

Patrick Somerville grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and later earned his MFA from Cornell University. He is the author of the story collections Trouble and The Universe in Miniature in Miniature, and the novel The Cradle. He lives with his wife and son in Chicago, where he teaches creative writing at Northwestern University.

Craig Childs
author of Finders Keepers

Craig Childs--naturalist, adventurer, desert ecologist, and frequent contributor to National Public Radio's Morning Edition--lives in Crawford, Colorado. His previous books include The Animal Dialogues, House of Rain, The Way Out, The Secret Knowledge of Water, and Soul of Nowhere.

Pete Hamill
author of Snow in August

Pete Hamill is a novelist, journalist, editor, and screenwriter. He is the author of 17 previous books including the bestselling novel Snow in August and the bestselling memoir A Drinking Life. He writes a column for the New York Daily News and lives in New York City.