Eduardo Galeano is one of Latin America's most distinguished writers, journalists and historians. He is the author of the Memory of Fire trilogy, Open Veins of Latin America, Soccer in Sun and Shadow, and many other works. Born in Montevideo, in 1940, he lived in exile in Argentina and Spain for many years before returning to Uruguay. His work has inspired popular and classical music composers from all over the world. He speaks five languages. He was the recipient of the first Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom. He has been translated into over 20 languages. He has just been awarded "The Outstanding Citizen of the South," a new prize awarded by the Common Market of the South.

Mike Davis is a native Southern California writer and radical activist turned overpaid academic, who has published several controversial books on Los Angeles (City of Quartz and Ecology of Fear) as well as numerous collections of essays and two histories of globalization in different epochs (Late Victorian Holocausts and Planet of Slums). For 11 years he was part of the conspiracy at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, but now teaches writing at U.C. Riverside. He's married to the Mexican artist Alessandra Moctezuma and has four rebellious children. They live in San Diego between chaos and joy.