Alfred W. McCoy

Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

The technology used is state of the art; the impulse, it turns out, is nothing new. For well over a century, what might be called "surveillance blowback" from America's wars has ensured the creation of an ever more massive and omnipresent internal security and surveillance apparatus.

Mark Rubinstein

Author, 'Mad Dog House & Love Gone Mad' (due September 1st) www.markrubinstein-author.com

Simon Toyne is the author of the highly acclaimed Sanctus trilogy. Simon graduated from Goldsmith's College in London with a degree in English and Drama. He worked in British television for nearly 20 years as a producer. I

Julie Wilson

Author

Reading is among the last truly subversive acts we can perform, time spent in our own minds, active and imaginative, alone with our emotions, judgments, and dreams, where no one can reach us. Yet frequent readers are also more likely to participate in community and to trust the people in that community.

Roz Warren

Writer

Buy Shoes On Wednesday and Tweet at 4:00 is a new advice book which tells the reader the best possible time to get everything done, from flossing ones teeth to visiting Zanzibar. As a public service, I've used the information provided in that book to create an ideal day.

Simon Maloy

Research Fellow, Media Matters for America

The people inside the bubble act without shame and are perfectly comfortable knowing that their peers within the bubble know what's up. But they're also terrified that their incestuous rituals will become the stuff of headlines.

Madeline Wahl

Social Media Fellow, The Huffington Post

My parents divorced during my last year of college. Though it didn't come as a surprise - they'd been arguing for as long as I could remember - it still came as a shock.

Alec Gewirtz

17-year-old high school student

A writer's life cut short -- Keats, Marlowe, the Brontës -- haunts literary history, and the writer's fear of dying prematurely, before fulfilling his potential, once made for some of the West's finest writing. How fittingly modern, then, that writers nowadays could, in effect, live too long.

Hanna Raskin

Incoming food writer, Charleston, S.C. Post & Courier

There's nothing inherently wrong with a forum in which non-professional diners can swap restaurant recommendations. But most online sites are jammed with reviews ranging from laughable to libelous. Here are five fundamentals every reviewer should know.

Meg Waite Clayton

Bestselling Novelist, 'The Wednesday Sisters' and 'The Wednesday Daughters'

Wordsworth and his brother were walking in the English Lakes in late 1799 with fellow poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge when they came upon the Dove Cottage in Grasmere. Although he lived there for less than a decade, many of the poems he is remembered for were written during those years.

Rob Taub

Writer, Comedian & Television Commentator

My few days at Thrillerfest were very enjoyable and most would agree with Grandmaster Award recipient Ann Rice who called Thrillerfest, "one of the best experiences of my entire life as a writer."

Henriette Lazaridis Power

Author, The Clover House

If you're hankering for the Greek isles but can't manage an Aegean vacation this summer, why not go there through fiction instead?

Paul Ratner

Writer/Director

They lived on the unnecessary planet doing unnecessary things and were generally unnecessary people. It happens like that some times, when the universe produces things both really great and little enough to be superfluous.

Carey Perloff

Artistic Director, American Conservatory Theater

I have a dozen things I am supposed to be focusing on this summer, but for the past month, what have I snuck off to do whenever I have had a spare moment, like an addict looking for a fix? I am re-reading (for the third time) Anna Karenina.

Mary Pritchard

Psychology professor, Boise State University

The latest addition to my bookshelves is an interesting one. Successful model, turned alcoholic, turned real estate superstar, turned women's life recovery and empowerment coach Mal Duane tells her story in Alpha Chick: Five Steps for Moving From Pain to Power.

Catherine McKenzie

Author of 'Spin,' 'Arranged,' 'Forgotten'

Sisterland is the story of two sisters, identical twins. Both twins are afflicted/gifted (depending on which sister you're talking to) with a form of ESP.

Warren Adler

Author

So here is my advice to the aspiring writer. Write on dear friends. Share your dreams and aspirations with the like-minded. In the great battle between art and commerce, art always triumphs.

Mimi Minsky

Aspiring novelist

They were quite the odd couple, yet they were similar; the two of them together. They didn't allow others to get too close to them, for fear they would be left inept. They both maintained a steadfast love affair with child-like innocence.