About the Authors
F. Paul Wilson is the New York Times bestselling author of horror, adventure, medical thrillers, science fiction, and virtually everything in between. He is perhaps best known for the Repairman Jack series, which includes Ground Zero, The Tomb, and Fatal Error. He is also the author of the Adversary cycle, including The Keep, and a young adult series featuring the teenage Jack. Wilson has won the Prometheus Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Inkpot Award from the San Diego Comic-Con, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers of America, among other honors. He lives in Wall, New Jersey.
Lyndsay Faye is the author of critically acclaimed Dust and Shadow and The Gods of Gotham and is featured in The Best American Mystery Stories 2010. A true New Yorker in the sense that she was born elsewhere, she lives in Manhattan with her husband, Gabriel.
James W. Hall is
an American author and professor of literature and writing at Florida
International University. He is the
author of four books of poetry, a collection of short stories, and over a dozen
novels. His Hit Lit examines twelve
of the most commercially successful novels of the last century, and discusses a
dozen common features they share.
Elizabeth George is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty psychological suspense novels, four young adult novels, one book of nonfiction, and two short-story collections. Her work has been honored with the Anthony and Agatha awards, two Edgar nominations, and both France's and Germany's first prize for crime fiction, as well as several other prestigious prizes.
James Grady is the author of the bestselling thriller Six Days of the Condor. He is the recipient of the Grand Prix du Roman Noir (France) and the Raymond Chandler Award (Italy), and was an Edgar nominee in the United States. Grady now lives in Washington, DC.
R. L. Stine is the author of many series of mystery, horror, and fantasy books for children and young adults and the creator of the Goosebumps series, one of the bestselling children’s series ever and inspiration for a television show and a feature film. In 2024 he was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, one of the mystery world’s highest honors. He has more than 400 million English-language books in print, plus international editions in thirty-two languages, making him one of the most popular children’s authors of all time.
Ian Rankin, a New York Times bestselling author, is the recipient of an Edgar Award, a Gold Dagger for fiction, and a Chandler-Fulbright Fellowship.
Denise Mina is the author of mystery, horror, and historical fiction. She has written novels for four series, as well as stand-alone novels and graphic novels. The Field of Blood won the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel, The Long Drop won the Gordon Burn Prize, and Garnethill.
Thomas Perry is the bestselling author of over twenty novels, including The Butcher’s Boy, which won the Edgar Award, and Metzger’s Dog, which was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He received a BA degree from Cornell University and a PhD in English from the University of Rochester.
Megan Abbott is an Edgar Award–winning author of several novels and nonfiction and the 2019 recipient of the Pinckley Prize for Distinguished Body of Work. Her novel The Fever won the International Thriller Writers Award and Strand Critics Award for Best Novel and was chosen one of the best books of the year by Amazon, National Public Radio, the Boston Globe, and the Los Angeles Times. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, and the London Guardian, among others. Her stories have appeared in numerous anthologies. She received her PhD in English and American literature from New York University. She is a staff writer on HBO’s David Simon show, The Deuce.
Carolyn Hart is the bestselling author of the Death on Demand mysteries. Her books have
won multiple Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Awards. She is a recipient of the Malice Domestic Lifetime Achievement Award, and In 2014 she received the Mystery
Writers of America’s Grand Master Award. She lives in Oklahoma City.
Joyce Carol Oates, an award-winning author of fiction, nonfiction, short stories, plays, and novellas, is the author of some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including two New York Times bestsellers. Her books have won the National Book Award, O. Henry Award, the Jerusalem Prize, and the National Humanities Medal, among others. Her work has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize several times. She has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.
Stephen Hunter is the author of several bestselling novels, including Time to Hunt, Black Light, Point of Impact, and the New York Times bestsellers Havana, Pale Horse Coming, and Hot Springs. He has also published two collections of film criticism and other nonfiction works. He was a film critic at the Washington Post, where he won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for criticsm, as well as the 1998 American Society of Newspaper Editors Award for Distinguished Writing in Criticism.
Peter Lovesey, the author of more than thirty highly praised mystery novels, has won the British Crime Writers’ Association Silver and Gold Dagger awards as well as the Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement and the Strand Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. In the United States, he has received Edgar and Dilys nominations, an Anthony Award and a Macavity Award, and the Ellery Queen Readers Award, among others. In 2018, he was named a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master.
Bradford Morrow is the author of numerous acclaimed works of fiction and poetry, including Ariel’s Crossing and Giovanni’s Gift. He is also the founder of the literary journal Conjunctions, which he has edited since 1981. He received a Guggenheim fellowship in 2007 and is a professor of literature at Bard College.
Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) was born in Odense, Denmark, the son of a poor shoemaker and a washerwoman. As a young teenager, he became quite well known in Odense as a reciter of drama and as a singer. When he was fourteen, he set off for the capital, Copenhagen, determined to become a national success on the stage. He failed miserably, but made some influential friends in the capital who got him into school to remedy his lack of proper education. In 1829 his first book was published. After that, books came out at regular intervals. His stories began to be translated into English as early as 1846. Since then, numerous editions, and more recently Hollywood songs and Disney cartoons, have helped to ensure the continuing popularity of the stories in the English-speaking world.