 John Barth is one of the most influential writers of the second half of the 20th century. He grew up in Maryland and studied at the Juilliard School and then at the Johns Hopkins University, where he earned his undergraduate degree and an M.F.A. Originally interested in journalism, he went on to become a novelist, professor, and short-story writer. He was nominated for the National Book Award in 1956 for The Floating Opera, and he won the award in 1968 for Chimera. His other best-known works include The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) and Giles Goat-Boy (1966). He is known as one of the fathers of creative writing as a scholarly discipline; he has taught at Pennsylvania State University, University at Buffalo (SUNY), Boston University, and, for 20 years, at his alma mater, Johns Hopkins, from which he retired in 1995. He is the author of 18 books of fiction, nonfiction, and essays. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he received the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Distinguished Achievement in American Fiction in 1997.
Photo of John Barth from the back cover of Giles Goat-Boy.
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 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a distinguished visiting fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program of the Brookings Institution. A native of Nigeria, she earned her undergraduate degree at Harvard and her Ph.D. in regional economics and development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was vice president and corporate secretary for the World Bank and was the first woman to serve as Nigeria's finance minister and, later, as its foreign affairs minister. She earned a reputation as an advocate for economic reform and for transparency in the way governments transact economic affairs, and for her efforts she was selected as a Time magazine "Hero of the Year" in 2004 and received the Euromarket Forum Award for Vision and Courage in 2003. At the Brookings Institution her projects focus on economic reform issues in Africa, corruption and governance in social-sector financing, transparency and accountability, and global health-financing issues. She also is co-author of two books: Chinua Achebe: Teacher of Light (2004) and The Debt Trap in Nigeria: Towards a Sustainable Debt Strategy (2002). |
 Sonny Rollins grew up in Harlem admiring saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, and after he graduated from high school it was not long before he himself was playing tenor saxophone alongside other jazz greats, including Bud Powell and Roy Haynes. When he was only 21 years old he made his debut playing lead saxophone on a recording by Prestige, the label that also produced two of his most famous records, Saxophone Colossus (1956) and Tenor Madness (1956). In a career spanning 56 years, he has played and recorded with a Who's Who of distinguished jazz musicians, and he has made an even greater mark as a solo performer. He is considered to be among the greatest solo performers in American musical history. Mr. Rollins's contributions to American and world music have been recognized with several Grammy awards — the latest for best instrumental jazz solo in 2006 -— as well as a lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He was inducted into the Academy of Achievement, won artist of the year awards from Down Beat, and received the 2007 Polar Music Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. His latest CD, Sonny, Please, was released on his own label, Doxy. |
 Thomas Schelling won the 2005 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and is an emeritus professor at the University of Maryland. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley with a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, Professor Schelling's early career saw him working in Paris and Copenhagen as an administrator of the Marshall Plan, serving as a staffer for the White House foreign policy advisor, and teaching at Yale University. While at Yale he began the work on game theory that later caught the attention of the Nobel committee. He taught at Harvard for 31 years, in the department of economics, the Center for International Affairs, and the Kennedy School of Government, while also consulting with the United States government on issues including arms control. After retiring from Harvard, in 1990, he became Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland. He has continued to do research and to write on nuclear weapons policy, climate change, and, since 2001, on terrorism. He is the author of the influential book The Strategy of Conflict (1960) and the subject of a recent biography, The Strategist: The Life and Times of Thomas Schelling (2006), by Robert Dodge. |
 Adam Weinberg is Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art. He began his career in art as a teenager, with a summer internship at the Guggenheim Museum, and he went on to earn a degree in art history from Brandeis University in 1977. After graduation he worked at the Toledo Museum of Art as a National Endowment for the Arts fellow, and in 1981 he went on to the famed Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. In 1987 he was hired to direct the Whitney's branch museum at the Equitable Center in New York, and, after two years as a curator at the American Center in Paris, he returned to the Whitney as senior curator and curator of the permanent collection. In 1999 he was named director of the Addison Gallery of American Art, in Andover, Mass., where he mounted a major exhibition of prints by Richard Serra. Four years later he returned to the Whitney and, as the director, he has revitalized the curatorial staff, brought old supporters back into the fold and attracted new ones, and devised a plan to build a new and more expansive building, designed by Renzo Piano. He is innovative, he is not afraid to take risks, and he is considered a curator's director — he loves art and artists. He is the author or co-author of numerous books and articles on American art, including, of particular note for Colby, Alex Katz: Small Works (2001). | |
