George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair in 1903 in Motihari in Bengal, India and later studied at Eton for four years. Orwell was an assistant superintendent with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. He left the position after five years and then moved to Paris, where he wrote his first two books, Burmese Days and Down and Out In Paris. Orwell then moved to Spain to write but decided to join the United Workers Marxist Party Militia. After being decidedly opposed to communism, Orwell served in the British Home Guard and with the Indian Service of the BBC during World War II. He started writing for the Observer and was literary editor for the Tribune. Soon after he published the world-famous… book, Animal Farm, which became a huge success for Orwell. It was then towards the end of his life when Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four. George Orwell died on January 23, 1950 in London.
Dolen Perkins-Valdez�s fiction has appeared in the Robert Olen Butler Prize Stories, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. Born and raised in Memphis, a graduate of Harvard, and a former University of California President�s Postdoctoral Fellow, Dolen teaches creative writing at the University of Puget Sound.
Sandra Newman was born in America but also lived in England for 20 years. Her professions have ranged from academia to professional gambling. Her first novel, The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done, was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. Her second novel, Cake, was published in 2007, and her memoir, Changeling, in 2010. She co-wrote How NOT to Write a Novel, an irreverent how-to guide. In 2012 she wrote The Western Lit Survival Kit: How to Read the Classics Without Fear. She lives in New York.