The Western Hemisphere or western hemisphere is mainly used as a geographical term^{[citation needed]} for the half of the Earth that lies west of the IERS Reference Meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the Antimeridian (the International Date Line), the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere.

In this sense, the Western Hemisphere consists of the North America, South America, the western portions of Africa and Europe, the extreme eastern tip of Russia, numerous territories in Oceania, and a portion of Antarctica, while excluding some of the Aleutian Islands to the southwest of the Alaskan mainland.

The term is, however, often used in political rhetoric to mean only North America and South America (or the New World) and adjacent islands, however, the Western Hemsiphere does technically include all of the above mentioned territory.

In an effort to define the Western Hemisphere as the parts of the world which are not part of the Old World, there also exist projections which use the 20th meridian west and the diametrically opposed 160th meridian east to define the hemisphere. This projection excludes the European and African mainlands and a small portion of northeast Greenland, but includes more of eastern Russia and Oceania (e.g., New Zealand).

Maggie Estep is an American writer. She has published seven books and released two spoken word albums: Love is a Dog From Hell and No More Mr. Nice Girl.

Estep was born in 1963 in Summit, New Jersey. As a poet, she emerged in the early 1990s when grunge was the height of fashion and her "direct, aggressive and uncompromisingly modern" poetry was highly accessible.

Estep appeared on MTV's Spoken Word Unplugged, PBS's The United States of Poetry and most recently on Season 3 of HBO's Def Poetry. Her video for her spoken word track "Hey Baby" received moderate rotation on MTV and was highlighted on MTV's Beavis & Butt-head. She also contributed vocals to two songs on Recoil's 1997 album Unsound Methods, including the single "Control Freak".

Estep went on to write many novels, including "Diary of an Emotional Idiot", the Ruby Murphy mystery trilogy, Gargantuan,Hex" and "Flamethrower," and "Alice Fantastic". Hex was named New York Times Notable Book for 2003.. She has, for several years, been at work on The Angelmakers, a novel about 19th Century female gangsters and the founding of animal rights.

Diego Luna (born December 29, 1979) is a Mexican actor known for his childhood telenovela work, a starring role in the film Y tu mamá también, and supporting roles in American films. He is also known for his roles in Rudo y Cursi and Milk. Together with Romola Garai, he starred the film Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. Luna also had minor roles in Frida and Before Night Falls. He also provides Spanish language narration for the National Geographic Channel documentary Great Migrations.

Luna was born Diego Luna Alexander in Mexico City; the son of Fiona Alexander, an English costume designer, and Alejandro Luna, a Mexican set designer who is one of the most acclaimed living theatre, cinema, and opera set designers in Mexico. His mother died in a car accident when he was two years old. She had worked in the film industry and had made sure that this was a life Luna would be immersed in. His father also reinforced the importance of theater and the arts in his life. In Luna's youth, he would bring him to the sets and mentor him in all different aspects of his art, furthering his desire to become an actor and uphold a family tradition.