Born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1899, **Ernest Hemingway** became one of America's most celebrated and influential writers, transforming both literature and the public's perception of what it meant to be an author.

John Ernst Steinbeck was an American writer and novelist.

Emily Jane Brontë was an English writer best known for her 1847 novel Wuthering Heights.

Pauline Nestor is an Associate Professor in English at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She has edited works including Emily Brontë's *Wuthering Heights* and has written on George Eliot in *George Eliot: Critical Issues*.

Barbara Ellen Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist, and poet.

Elizabeth Strout is an American novelist and author.