Steve Almond (born 27 October 1966) is an American short story writer and essayist. He is the author of eight books.

He was raised in Palo Alto, California, and graduated from Henry M. Gunn High School. He received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University. He spent seven years as a newspaper reporter, mostly in El Paso and at the Miami New Times. He lives in Arlington, Massachusetts. He reviews books for The Boston Globe and The Los Angeles Times. His work was selected for the Best American Short Stories 2010.

He served as adjunct professor in creative writing at Boston College for five years until publishing an open letter of resignation in the The Boston Globe on May 12, 2006, in which he explained that his resignation was intended to protest the selection of Condoleezza Rice as the college's 2006 commencement guest speaker.

Steve was a contributing writer to Alarm Clock Theatre Company's Elliot Norton Award winning play PS Page Me Later based on selections from Found Magazine.

On October 27, 2011, Almond appeared as a guest on the critically acclaimed podcast WTF with Marc Maron.

Kevin Sampsell is an American writer based in Oregon. He has been the publisher of Future Tense Books since 1990. His fiction has been published in literary journals such as Quick Fiction,LIT,Hobart, and Opium Magazine and on the websites McSweeney's,Nerve,Failbetter,Pindeldyboz, and Night Train. He is the editor of Portland Noir and The Insomniac Reader and the author of two story collections, Beautiful Blemish and Creamy Bullets.

While teaching an after-school writing class, Sampsell met 14-year-old Zoe Trope and published her journal entries as a 44-page chapbook called, Please Don't Kill The Freshman. Fast sales of the chapbook led to an expanded version published by HarperTempest in October 2003.

His memoir, A Common Pornography, was published by Harper Perennial in January 2010. The Portland Monthly's review characterizes it as the story of a boy growing up in a lower-class family from Kennewick, Washington and asserts "praise trails the writer and poet".

He lives in Portland, Oregon with his teenage son and wife, Frayn Masters, and works at Powell's Bookstore.

Sean Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is a television host, author, and conservative political commentator. He is the host of The Sean Hannity Show, a nationally syndicated talk radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks. Hannity also hosts a cable news show, Hannity, on Fox News Channel. Hannity has written three New York Times–bestselling books:Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism, Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism, and Conservative Victory: Defeating Obama’s Radical Agenda.

Hannity is the son of Hugh J. and Lillian F. Hannity. His paternal and maternal grandparents immigrated from Ireland. He has two sisters. He grew up in Franklin Square, New York and attended Sacred Heart Seminary in Hempstead, New York during his middle school years and St. Pius X Preparatory Seminary high school in Uniondale, New York. Hannity dropped out of New York University and Adelphi University.

Hannity hosted his first talk radio show in 1989 at the volunteer college station at UC Santa Barbara, KCSB-FM, while working as a general contractor. The show aired for 40 hours of air time; Regarding his first show, Hannity has said, "I wasn't good at it. I was terrible." Hannity's weekly show on KCSB was canceled after less than a year by station managers. This was after two shows featuring the book The AIDS Coverup: The Real and Alarming Facts about AIDS by Gene Antonio; among other remarks made during the broadcast, Hannity told a lesbian caller "I feel sorry for your child". The station later reversed its decision to dismiss Hannity due in part to a campaign conducted by the Santa Barbara Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Hannity decided against returning to KCSB.