Henrik Pontoppidan (1857-1943) was a Danish novelist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1917 for his 'authentic descriptions of present-day life in Denmark'. The son of a rural minister, he moved to Copenhagen as a young man and eventually earned his living as a journalist and writer. He is best known for the sweeping social novels he wrote between 1890 and the 1920s, which 'reflect the social, religious and political struggles of the time.'
Garth Risk Hallberg's first novel, City on Fire, was an international bestseller and was named one of the best books of the year by the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Independent, and Vogue, among others. His illustrated novella, A Field Guide to the North American Family was nominated for a Believer Book Award and his short fiction and essays have been published in the Guardian, and the New York Times Book Review. He is a Granta Best Young American Novelist. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and children and is at work on a new novel.
Naomi Lebowitz is Professor Emerita of English and Comparative Literature at Washington University in St Louis and the author of books on Ibsen, Kierkegaard and Svevo.