Keith Kachtick grew up in Texas, attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and now lives in New York City. His writing has appeared in a number of publications, including Esquire, Texas Monthly, the Missouri Review, and the New York Times Magazine. He is senior instructor of the Lineage Project, a nonprofit, Dharma-based organization that runs meditation classes in youth prisons in Harlem, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.
Lama Surya Das is the bestselling author of several books including Awakening the Buddha Within. The founder and main teacher of the Dzogchen Foundation, he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.