Charles Bowden was born in Joliet, Illinois on July 20, 1945. He received an undergraduate degree from the University of Arizona and a master's degree in American intellectual history from the University of Wisconsin. He completed work toward his doctorate there but walked out while defending his dissertation, because he was frustrated with what he felt were uninformed questions from his review committee. He was a reporter for The Tucson Citizen in the early 1980s. He wrote several books during his lifetime including Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder and Family, Ju�rez: The Laboratory of Our Future, A Shadow in the City: Confessions of an Undercover Drug Warrior, Murder City: Ciudad… Ju�rez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields, and Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America. He died on August 30, 2014 at the age of 69.
ALICE LEORA BRIGGS has exhibited her drawings and architectural installations in museums, galleries, and nonprofit spaces across the United States and in Europe. Recent fellowships and grants include awards from Border Art Residency, Jentel Foundation, Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, Arizona Commission on the Arts, Contemporary Forum and Cummings Endowment Fund, Phoenix Art Museum, Tucson/Pima Arts Council, Larry E. Elsner Art Foundation, and Dallas Museum of Art's Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Travel Grant. She lives in Lubbock, Texas.