VIVIAN GORNICK is a writer and critic whose work has received two National Book Critics Circle Award nominations. Her works include the memoirs Fierce Attachments-ranked the best memoir of the last fifty years by the New York Times-The Odd Woman and the City, and Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader, as well as the classic text on writing, The Situation and the Story.
ROBERT ATWAN has been the series editor of The Best American Essays since its inception in 1986.
He has edited numerous literary anthologies and written essays and reviews for periodicals nationwide.