About the Authors

• Sasha Abramsky
• Ann Beattie
• Sharon Begley
• Ray Bradbury
• Edwidge Danticat
• Robert Frost
• Daniel Gardner
• Barry Glassner
• John Keats
• Lynne Kelly
• Stephen King
• Steven Kotler
• Scott O. Lilienfeld
• David Moats
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• David Ropeik
• Bruce Schneier
• Rod Serling
• Jane Tompkins

Sasha Abramsky, born in England in 1972, studied politics, philosophy, and economics at Balliol College before moving to the United States. Abramsky earned his MA in journalism from Columbia University. In 2003 he moved to California where he lives with his wife and two children. He has published five books, including his most recent Inside Obama’s Brain, and continues to write freelance articles and teach at the University of California, Davis writing program.

Ann Beattie has been included in four O. Henry Award Collections and in John Updike’s The Best American Short Stories of the Century. In 2000, she received the PEN/Malamud Award for achievement in the short story form. She and her husband, Lincoln Perry, live in Key West, Florida, and Charlottesville, Virginia, where she is the Edgar Allan Poe Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Virginia.

Sharon Begley graduated from Yale University in 1977. Shortly after graduating she began working for Newsweek, where she worked until 2002. Begley wrote the science column in the Wall Street Journal from 2002-07 before returning to Newsweek. She has published two books, Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves, and The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force coauthored with psychiatrist Jeffrey Schwartz. She lives with her husband and two children in Pelham, New York.

Ray Bradbury was born in 1920 in Waukegon, Illinois. He graduated from high school but never attended college; instead he spent hours in libraries. One of the most popular science fiction writers of the 20th century, Bradbury is most well-known for his 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. He is the author of thirty books and more than 600 short stories. In 2004 he received the National Medal of Arts for his lifetime of writings. Living in LA, he raised four daughters (now adults) with his wife Maggie, who passed away in 2003.

Edwidge Danticat was born in 1969 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, before immigrating to New York at the age of 12. She attended Bernard College and received her MFA. in Creative Writing from Brown University. Her memoir Brother, I’m Dying is one of her bestselling publications. Her memoir and many of her novels and collections of short stories have been translated into multiple languages. In 2009, Danticat was awarded the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s “Genius Award” fellowship. Danticat lives in Miami with her husband and two daughters.

Robert Frost (1874-1963) was born in San Francisco, California. After his father died in 1885, Frost and his family moved to Massachusetts. He briefly attended Dartmouth College but never graduated. In 1895 Frost married his high school sweetheart Elinor White, with whom he had six children. Frost wrote hundreds of poems in his life, two of his most famous being Fire and Ice and The Road Not Taken. Frost won four Pulitzer Prizes for his work.

Daniel Gardner is a journalist, author, and lecturer with an MA in history and an LLB in law. A native Canadian, he joined the Ottawa Citizen’s editorial board in 1997. He has received numerous awards for his writing, including the National Newspaper Award in 2002. He has written two books, The Science of Fear and Future Babble, and continues to publish frequent opinion articles. He currently lives in Ottawa, Canada with his wife and three young children.

Barry Glassner is currently the president of the Lewis & Clark College. Prior to this, Glassner was a professor of sociology at the University of Southern California. He received the Phi Kappa Phi Faculty recognition award, and a “best book” designation from the Los Angeles Times book review. His research concentrates on media studies, cultural sociology, and qualitative methods. He has authored or coauthored nine books, including The Culture of Fear.

John Keats (1795-1841) was a well-known English Romantic poet. Though he published three books of poetry during his lifetime, his poems were not well received by critics until after his death. Keats’ poetry is noted for its sensual imagery, particularly his series of odes.

Lynne Kelly is professor and director of the School the Communication at the University of Hartford. Her current research includes communication technologies like email and cell phones, and the role they play in developing and maintaining relationships. She has coauthored four books, and has published or presented over a hundred papers.

Stephen King, born in 1947 in Portland, Maine, graduated from the University of Maine at Orono in 1970, with a B.A. in English. He has published over 50 books and has become one of the world’s most successful writers. In 2003, King received The National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He and his wife, Tabitha, have three adult children.

Steven Kotler graduated from the University of Wisconsin, and received an MA in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University. He has authored three books, and his writing has appeared in over 70 publications.

Scott O. Lilienfeld received his B.A. in Psychology from Cornell University in 1982 and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Minnesota in 1990. He is currently a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Emory.

David Moats received his bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1969. He has been editorial page editor of the Rutland Herald since 1992, where he won the Pulitzer Prize for his series of editorials in support of same-sex marriages. He has also written a book on the topic titled Civil Wars: A battle for gay marriage.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Poe’s life was full of tragedy, and his death at age 40 remains surrounded by mystery. Orphaned as a young child, he grew up in Richmond, Virginia with his foster parents. Poe attended The University of Virginia, briefly but did not graduate. Though Poe is best known for his short stories such as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher, he also wrote a novel as well as a book of scientific theory. He is also considered one of America’s first literary critics.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) was born in 1887 in Hyde Park, New York. He attended Harvard University and Columbia Law School. FDR greatly admired his fifth cousin Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, and was inspired by him to enter politics. Roosevelt was Governor of New York from 1928 to 1932. His first term as President began in 1933 at the height of the Great Depression, and his economic programs known as The New Deal, were initiated in efforts to end the depression. He served four terms as President, until his death in 1945. Together with wife Eleanor, he had six children.

David Ropeik is an author, consultant and award-winning television reporter. He teaches in the Harvard University School of Continuing Education, Environmental Management program, and works as an independent consultant. Ropeik is the coauthor of RISK, A Practical Guide for Deciding What’s Dangerous and What’s Safe in the World Around You and the author of How Risky Is It, Really? Why Our Fears Don’t Always Match the Facts.

Bruce Schneier, born in 1963, is an author, cryptographer, and internationally-renowned security technologist. Schneier has published numerous books and articles, including technical works such as Cryptography Engineering, as well as works for a broader audience such as Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World and Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World.

Rod Serling (1924-1975) was born in Binghamton, New York. Serling is remembered for his work as a writer, teacher and screenwriter. He won three Emmy Awards for his role as host and narrator of the famous science fiction television series The Twilight Zone. Serling wrote more than half of the one hundred and fifty-one episodes that aired, and adapted many of these episodes into short stories as well. He and his wife,Carolyn, have two children.

Jane Tompkins received her Ph.D. from Yale. She taught English for many years at Duke University, before taking a position teaching in the departments of English and Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her memoir A Life in School: What a Teacher Learned advocates for a more holistic approach to education. Her other works include West of Everything: The Inner Life of Westerns and Sensational Designs: The Cultural Work of American Fiction.