Jim Krusoe is the author of the novels Girl Factory, and Iceland; two collections of stories, Blood Lake and Abductions; as well as five books of poetry. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Fund. He teaches at Santa Monica College and lives in Los Angeles with his wife and children.

Michael Silverblatt is the host and guiding spirit of KCRW's half-hour radio show "Bookworm," where he introduces listeners to new and emerging authors along with writers of renown. A New York native, Silverblatt graduated from the State University of New York in Buffalo and later took advanced courses at Johns Hopkins. He moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s where he worked in motion picture public relations and script development. He created "Bookworm" for KCRW-FM in 1989.