Howard Zinn (1922-2010) was a historian, playwright, and activist. He wrote the classic A People's History of the United States, "a brilliant and moving history of the American people from the point of view of those ... whose plight has been largely omitted from most histories" (Library Journal). The book, which has sold more than two million copies, has been featured on The Sopranos and Simpsons, and in the film Good Will Hunting. In 2009, History aired The People Speak, an acclaimed documentary co-directed by Zinn, based on A People's History and a companion volume, Voices of a People's History of the United States.

Zinn grew up in Brooklyn in a working-class, immigrant household. At 18 he became a shipyard worker and then flew bomber missions during World War II. These experiences helped shape his opposition to war and passion for history. After attending college under the GI Bill and earning a Ph.D. in history from Columbia, he taught at Spelman, where he became active in the civil rights movement. After being fired by Spelman for his support for student protesters, Zinn became a professor of Political Science at Boston University, were he taught until his retirement in 1988.

Zinn was the author of many books, including an autobiography, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train, the play Marx in Soho, and Passionate Declarations. He received the Lannan Foundation Literary Award for Nonfiction and the Eugene V. Debs award for his writing and political activism.

Photographer Photo Credit Name: Robert Birnbaum.

Rebecca Stefoff published her first books when she was in college and has been writing ever since. She is the author of more than 200 books, with more on the way. Her writing motto: "Ideas are easy. Pages are hard."

Rebecca has written many nonfiction books for children and young adults, with an emphasis on science and history. Through her books teenage readers can explore topics as varied as ghosts, robots, bacteria, evolution, women pioneers, the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, and forensic crime solving.

Over the course of her freelance writing career Rebecca has also published romance novels, celebrity biographies, reference works, and even a self-help book. In addition, she has adapted the works of historian Howard Zinn, biologist Jared Diamond, science writer Charles C. Mann, and ethnic studies pioneer Ronald Takaki for young audiences. Her most recent project is a young-readers' version of the most influential science book ever written, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. It will be published by Simon & Schuster Atheneum in October 2018.

After growing up in Indiana, Rebecca moved to Philadelphia for graduate school. Later she moved to the Pacific Northwest and now lives in Portland, Oregon.

When Rebecca was in the fifth grade she picked up a copy of Robert A. Heinlein's novel Space Cadet in her school library. That got her hooked on speculative fiction: science fiction at first, then fantasy and later horror. As a grad student in English at the University of Pennsylvania, she developed and taught the school's first undergraduate classes in science fiction and fantasy. She still loves speculative fiction and reads a lot of nonfiction as well. Her interests include evolutionary biology, Himalayan travel, and polar exploration, and the future.