Elizabeth L. Bradley is a historian who has written widely on New York’s literature and history. She is the author of Knickerbocker: The Myth Behind New York (2009) and the editor of an edition of Washington Irving’s A History of New York (2008). She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Ian Williams is the author of Rum: A Social and Sociable History (2005). He lives in New York.
Maxim Februari is the award-winning author of essays and two novels, including The Book Club (2011), and is a columnist for the newspaper NRC Handelsblad.
Damian Flanagan is an award-winning author and translator who has published a number of books on Japanese literature, including Natsume Soseki: Superstar of World Literature (2007). He has also written widely on Japanese politics, arts and society for publications including Newsweek and the Nihon Keizai Shinbun.
Zachary Nowak is Associate Director for the Food Studies Program at the Umbra Institute in Perugia, Italy.
A legal scholar and philosopher, Roelf Bolt (1970–2012) taught at university level. A lover of the weird and wonderful, his bookshelves were full of works on medical oddities and other curiosa, deluded visionaries and pseudoscientists.
John Harvey is a novelist and critic. He taught for the Cambridge English Faculty from 1974, and in 2000 became University Reader in Literature and Visual Culture. He is a Life Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He is the author of Men in Black (Reaktion, 1997) and The Story of Black (Reaktion, 2013).
Peter Wild is the author and editor of a number of books and has written for publications including The Guardian and The Independent.
Rachel Poliquin is a writer and curator. She is the author of The Breathless Zoo: Taxidermy and the Cultures of Longing (2012) and has curated natural history exhibits for the Museum of Vancouver and the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at the University of British Columbia. She lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Mari Grinde Arntzen is a journalist who writes for Aftenposten and Dagens Næringsliv, and teaches at the School of Fashion Industry in Oslo.