John Langan has taught reading and writing at Atlantic Cape Community College near Atlantic City, New Jersey, for more than twenty-five years. The author of a popular series of college textbooks on both writing and reading, John enjoys the challenge of developing materials that teach skills in an especially clear and lively way. Before teaching, he earned advanced degrees in writing at Rutgers University and in reading at Rowan University. He also spent a year writing fiction that, he says, is now at the back of a drawer waiting to be discovered and acclaimed posthumously. While in school, he supported himself by working as a truck driver, a machinist, a battery assembler, a hospital… attendant, and an apple packer. John now lives with his wife, Judith Nadell, near Philadelphia. In addition to his wife and Philly sports teams, his passions include reading and turning on nonreaders to the pleasure and power of books. Through Townsend Press, his educational publishing company, he has developed the nonprofit Townsend Library, a collection of more than a hundred new and classic stories.J. Paul Peter is another very highly regarded marketing educator and is also at UW-Madison. He has won many awards for his contributions through research, textbooks, and education.
Richard Hass is a volunteer coordinator for the Minnesota Rose Society. He has received awards from the American Rose Society and has been a rose judge since 2001.Jerry Olson has grown roses for almost sixty years and judged them for the American Rose Society for more than three decades. He has written articles for the American Rose Society and the Minnesota State Horticultural Society.John Whitman is a garden writer and photographer. He is the coauthor ofGrowing Perennials in Cold ClimatesandGrowing Shrubs and Small Trees in Cold Climates, both recently published in new editions from the University of Minnesota Press.