Frank McCourt taught in the New York City public schools for twenty-seven years, the last seventeen of which were spent at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan. After retiring from teaching, Frank and his brother, Malachy, performed their two-man show, *A Couple of Blaguards*, a musical review about their Irish Youth. His memoir, *Angela's Ashes*, was published in 1996 by Scribner and has spent over three years on *The New York Times* bestsellers lists. There are nearly six million copies in print in North America alone and the book is available in eighteen countries. Frank McCourt was the winner of the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Award in Biography/Autobiography, the Boston Book Review's Non-Fiction prize, the ABBY Award, and The Los Angeles Times Book Award. *Time* magazine and *Newsweek* chose *Angela's Ashes*, as the best nonfiction book of 1996. The sequel to *Angela's Ashes*, *Tis: A Memoir*, was published by Scribner in September, 1999 and hit *The New York Times* bestsellers list at number one and remained on the list for 37 weeks. A feature film of *Angela's Ashes*, starring Emily Watson, was made by Alan Parker. Frank lives in Connecticut with his wife, Ellen.

**Scott Simon **is the host of NPR’s Weekend Edition with Scott Simon. He has reported stories from all fifty states and every continent, and has won every major award in broadcasting, including the Peabody, the Emmy, the Columbia-DuPont, the Ohio State Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and the Sidney Hillman Award. He also hosts shows for PBS and appears on BBC TV. He is the author of the novels Pretty Birds and Windy City, the memoir Home and Away, and the history Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball. Image courtesy of Will O'Leary.