Susan Orlean, author of *The Orchid Thief* and *My Kind of Place,* takes readers on an irresistible tour of the world via its subcultures: from Japan's Mt. Fuji, to the heart of the African music scene in Paris, to Midland, Texas, hometown of George W. Bush, a place where "oil time" is the only time that matters. Barbara Sjoholm (formerly Barbara Wilson, author of *Gaudi Afternoon* and, the new book *Pirate Queen*) takes readers along for the four months that she traveled around the North Atlantic, chasing little known biographies of women fishing captains, cross-dressing sailors, and bold Viking explorers.
Susan Orlean has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1992, contributing profiles, columns, Reporter at Large, Talk of the Town, and Popular Chronicles on subjects ranging from umbrella inventors to figure skater Tonya Harding to clowns. Prior to joining The New Yorker, Orlean was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and at Vogue and has also written for Esquire, Smithsonian, and New York Times Magazine. In addition to her magazine work, Orlean is the author of seven books, including My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who’s Been Everywhere; The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters with Extraordinary People; Saturday Night; and Lazy Little Loafers. In 1999, she published The Orchid Thief, a best-selling narrative about orchid poachers in Florida. The Orchid Thief was made into the movie Adaptation, written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze.
Barbara Sjoholm was born in Long Beach, California, but has spent most of her adult life in the Pacific Northwest and Europe. She now lives in Port Townsend, on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. As a novelist, memoirist, translator, and mystery writer, Barbara Sjoholm has been both prolific and innovative. Many readers know her as Barbara Wilson, author of two successful, offbeat mystery series: one with Pam Nilsen, *A Printer in Seattle*, and a second with Cassandra Reilly, an *American Translator of Spanish*, based in London. These mysteries have sold over 100,000 copies and are translated into five languages. They cross boundaries in making feminist and social issues part of the plot. Gaudi Afternoon, set in Barcelona, was awarded a British Crime Writers' award and a Lambda Literary Award. In 2001, a film of *Gaudi Afternoon* was released, with Judy Davis in the title role of Cassandra Reilly and Marcia Gay Harden as Frankie. Barbara has also published several collections of short stories and three novels.