About the Authors
Founded in 1946, Highlights for Children, Inc., is dedicated to the belief that “children are the world’s most important people.” Every Highlights product helps children become their best selves and become curious, creative, caring, and confident individuals. With its flagship magazine’s success, Highlights for Children, Inc., expanded to include other companies.
George R. R. Martin sold his first story in 1971 and has been writing professionally ever since. He spent ten years in Hollywood as a writer-producer, working on The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and television pilots that were never made. In the mid ’90s he returned to prose, his first love, and began work on his epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. He has been in the Seven Kingdoms ever since. Whenever he’s allowed to leave, he returns to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lives with the lovely Parris, a big white dog called Mischa, and two cats named Augustus and Caligula, who think they run the place.
Gardner Dozois, one of the most acclaimed editors in science fiction, has won the Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor fifteen times, as well as the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award. He was the editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine for twenty years, is the editor of the Year’s Best Science Fiction anthologies, and is coeditor of the Warriors anthologies, Songs of the Dying Earth, and many others. As a writer, Dozois twice won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
About the Narrators
Iain Glen’s television credits include Downton Abbey, Spooks, Game of Thrones, Dr. Who, and Law & Order. He has also worked extensively in film and is known for his roles in The Iron Lady, Resident Evil: II & III, Kingdom of Heaven, and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. He won the Silver Bear for Best Actor for his role in Silent Scream and was nominated for an Olivier Award for his performance in the play The Blue Room opposite Nicole Kidman. Other theater appearances include Uncle Vanya, The Crucible, Hedda Gabler, Henry V, Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet, and Edward II.
Ron Donachie
is a Scotish actor who has appeared in over one hundred films and television
shows, though he is also prolific in theater and voice-over work. Among his
many credits are Downton Abbey, Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, Titanic, Hamish Macbeth, and Waterloo Road.
Rupert Degas is an award-winning narrator and a 2022 recipient of the AudioFile Golden Voice Award. He has won numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards, has recorded the works of Peter Carey, Haruki Murakami, Andy McNab, Darren Shan, and Derek Landy, among others. He has also recorded over fifty radio productions including The Gemini Apes, The Glittering Prizes, This Sceptered Isle, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. He has appeared on film and television in Dead Romantic, EastEnders, Waiting for God, Passport to Murder, Over Here, Fatherland, The Cappuccino Years, Exorcist: The Beginning, Love Soup and Shoot the Messenger. He has also lent his voice to numerous animated films and series including Mr. Bean, Bob the Builder, Robotboy, and The Amazing World of Gumball. Along with several stints in Newsrevue at the Canal Café Theatre and in Edinburgh, he has appeared on the London stage in The Boys Next Door, Are We There Yet?, Becket, Stones in His Pockets, and Patrick Barlow’s adaptation of The 39 Steps. He lives in Sydney, Australia.
Erin Bennett is an Earphones Award–winning narrator and a stage actress who played Carlie Roberts in the BBC radio drama Torchwood: Submission. She can be heard on several video games. Regional theater appearances include the Intiman, Pasadena Playhouse, Arizona Theatre Company, A Noise Within, Laguna Playhouse, and the Getty Villa. She trained at Boston University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
W. Morgan Sheppard is an award-winning British actor who has appeared on Broadway and in major films and television shows. His audiobook narrations have garnered several Audie Awards and an AudioFile Earphones Award. He has appeared in numerous films and television series, including Star Trek, Mad Men, and the movie Transformers, among many others, and has won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award.
Janis Ian is a singer, songwriter, and author. She is best known for her 1975 hit single, “At Seventeen,” which won a Grammy Award. She won a second Grammy in 2013 for the narration of her autobiography, Society’s Child.
Roy Dotrice is a Tony Award–winning actor best known for his Broadway performance in the revival of A Moon for the Misbegotten. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before producing and directing some three hundred stage plays. In 1957, he joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theater, an experience that brought him opportunities in radio, film, television, and numerous Broadway productions.
George R. R. Martin sold his first story in 1971 and has been writing professionally ever since. He spent ten years in Hollywood as a writer-producer, working on The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and television pilots that were never made. In the mid ’90s he returned to prose, his first love, and began work on his epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. He has been in the Seven Kingdoms ever since. Whenever he’s allowed to leave, he returns to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lives with the lovely Parris, a big white dog called Mischa, and two cats named Augustus and Caligula, who think they run the place.
Janis Ian is a singer, songwriter, and author. She is best known for her 1975 hit single, “At Seventeen,” which won a Grammy Award. She won a second Grammy in 2013 for the narration of her autobiography, Society’s Child.
Suehyla El-Attar Young is an actress and writer based in Atlanta, Georgia. She dabbled in radio for a bit, working with several well-known stations as a morning news personality and DJ. Eventually, she returned to acting, on stage and in film. She has nurtured both crafts of acting and writing, working with local companies such as Theatre du Reve, Synchronicity Theatre, the Alliance Theatre Company, and Horizon Theatre Company as dramaturge, actress, and playwright on several projects.