J.K. Rowling is the famous British author of the worldwide attention-gaining Harry Potter series. Her best-selling novels have sold more than 400 million copies and won numerous awards. The books have also been adapted to screen in a series of blockbuster films. Ranked as the twelfth richest woman in the United Kingdom in 2008 with a net worth of US$1 billion, Rowling has risen from rags to riches. Harry Potter upgraded the status of this woman from living on welfare to being a multimillionaire in a short period of just 5 years. Titled the Most Influential Woman in Britain in 2010 by leading magazine editors, J.K Rowling and Harry Potter have become household names globally.
Joanne Kathleen Rowling, daughter of Peter James Rowling and Anne Rowling, was born on 31 July 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England. She is the elder sister of Dianne Rowling, who was born 23 months after Jo. Rowling was fond of writing stories since a very young age; she read her short imaginative stories to her sister, Di. Rowling went to the Wyedean School and College, after which she attended the University of Exter, where she obtained a BA degree in French and Classics. Rowling then worked at Amnesty International in London as a researcher and bilingual secretary.
Rowling conceived the idea of Harry Potter in 1990 while she waited on a 4-hour delayed train trip from Manchester to London. Her mind was suddenly flooded with ideas about a boy who attended wizardry school. She did not have a pen at that time, so she kept thinking about it and immediately sat down to write as soon as she reached her flat in Clapham Junction.
Rowling wrote Harry Potter through difficult times of poverty and depression, surviving on welfare with her daughter whom she had from a brief marriage in Portugal. She now settled in Edinburg near her sister. The first book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which was renamed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for the U.S. edition, was published in Britain in June 1997. The book was a big hit not only among children but also adults.

J.K.

Liu Cixin, born in June 1963, is a representative of the new generation of Chinese science fiction authors and is recognized as a leading voice in Chinese science fiction. He was awarded the China Galaxy Science Fiction Award for eight consecutive years, from 1999 to 2006 and again in 2010. His representative work, The Three-body Problem, is the BEST STORY of the 2015 Hugo Awards, the 3rd of 2015 Campbell Award finalists, and a nominee for the 2015 Nebulas Award.&nbsp;
His works have received wide acclaim on account of their powerful atmosphere and brilliant imagination. Liu Cixin's stories successfully combine the exceedingly ephemeral with hard reality, all the while focussing on revealing the essence and aesthetics of science. He has endeavored to create a distinctly Chinese style of science fiction. Liu Cixin is a member of the China Writers' Association and the Shanxi Writers' Association.

Cixin

Ta-Nehisi Coates is a highly acclaimed author, journalist, and educator. He is best known for his writing on race and culture in America. Born in 1975 in Baltimore, Maryland, Coates has become one of the most influential voices in the national race and social justice dialogue. He is a MacArthur Fellow and National Book Award Winner for his nonfiction work, Between the World and Me, released in 2015.
Coates’ writing career began in 2008 with his piece “The Case for Reparations,” published in The Atlantic. This piece brought him widespread attention and propelled him to become one of the most sought-after writers in the United States. Since then, he has written for various publications and magazines such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Yorker. He has also written several books, including The Beautiful Struggle, We Were Eight Years in Power and The Water Dancer.
In addition to his writing, Coates is an educator. He has taught courses at Virginia State University and the Santa Fe Institute. He also serves as a distinguished writer in residence at Manhattanville College.
Coates’ work has been widely acclaimed and has received numerous awards. He won the National Book Award in 2015 for Between the World and Me and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Magazine Award. His work has also been featured in several films, television shows, and documentaries.
Coates is known for his honest and holistic approach to discussing race and inequality in America. He is an advocate for reparations for African Americans and has used his writing to call attention to the systemic racism and injustice in the United States. His work has been praised for its insight and careful consideration of history and personal experience to explore the state
In addition to his writing, Coates advocates for social justice and activism. He has spoken out against police brutality, mass incarceration, and other systemic racism. He is a vocal supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement and has made numerous appearances at rallies, protests, and other events supporting the cause.
Coates is also an active member of the literary community. He was a judge for the National Book Awards in 2018 and 2019. In addition, he is a contributing editor to The Atlantic and is a member of the literary nonprofit PEN America.
Coates’ influence continues to be felt in the literary and social justice worlds. His work has shaped public discourse around race, inequality, and justice. He has become a powerful voice in the fight for the rights of African Americans and other marginalized communities. He continues to use his writing to inspire and empower people to stand up for what is right.

Ta-Nehisi

Clayton M. Christensen is the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. In addition to his most recent book, Competing Against Luck, he is the author of nine books, including several New York Times bestsellers The Innovator's Dilemma, The Innovator's Solution, Disrupting Class, and most recently 'How Will You Measure Your Life?'.&nbsp;
Christensen is the co-founder of Innosight, a growth-strategy consultancy; Rose Park Advisors, an investment firm; and the Christensen Institute, a non-profit think tank. In 2011 and 2013, he was named the world’s most influential business thinker by Thinkers50.

Clayton

Steven Pressfield is an American author and screenwriter best known for his work on such films as The Legend of Bagger Vance and Courage Under Fire. He is also a highly acclaimed novelist, with works such as Gates of Fire, The War of Art, and The Profession.
Steven Pressfield was born in 1943 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, and spent most of his childhood in Los Angeles, California. He attended San Diego State University College and received his degree in English literature and creative writing. He served in the United States Marine Corps from 1962 to 1966 and was stationed in Okinawa, Japan.
Pressfield's early works are largely based on his military experience, with many of his novels set during wars in antiquity. His first novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance, was published in 1995 and was a highly successful movie adaptation released in 2000. His other works of fiction include Gates of Fire, a historical novel about the battle of Thermopylae, and The Afghan Campaign, a novel about the war in Afghanistan.
In addition to his novels, Pressfield has also written screenplays for films such as Courage Under Fire and The Legend of Bagger Vance. In 2002, he released The War of Art, a book about the psychology of creativity and how to overcome writer's block. His most recent book is The Profession, a novel about an elite team of military special operations forces.
Pressfield's works have been praised for their vivid detail, historical accuracy, and powerful storytelling. His novels are often characterized by a strong sense of moral imperative and dedication to the idea that while war may be necessary, it is never glorified. His works have earned him numerous awards, including the National Book Award and the American Library Association's Alex Award.
Pressfield is also known for his non-fiction works, such as The Authentic Swing, which explores the creative process and outlines the importance of creative discipline. He also wrote a series of essays called Turning Pro, which explores the process of transitioning from an amateur to a professional in any field.
Pressfield has lectured at the United States Naval Academy and at the Naval Postgraduate School. He is an advocate of the arts and was appointed to the California Arts Council in 2000. He has also served as a mentor to aspiring authors and has been involved in numerous charitable organizations.
Pressfield is an inspiration to many aspiring writers and is a strong proponent of the idea that anyone can achieve success with dedication and hard work. He is an example of overcoming obstacles and challenges and turning his passion into a successful career.

Steven

Nelle Harper Lee, better known as Harper Lee (1926 - 2016), was the American novelist revered for her work To Kill a Mockingbird (1960). It became an immediate best-seller and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. Inspired by events in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, from 1933-1935, it is about Atticus Finch, a lawyer, and single father, in his struggles to raise children Jem and Scout Finch to stand up for what's right and set an example for others, within the context of endemic racist attitudes in the deep South. The children befriend their neighbors, Dill, and the reclusive character, Arthur "Boo" Radley.
"The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience." After 1964, Lee refused all public appearances to discuss her writing or the novel's impact. She is also recognized for helping her friend, author Truman Capote, research for his novel, In Cold Blood (1966). Capote is thought to have inspired Lee's character, Dill.
There was controversy over whether Lee's manuscript for Go Set a Watchman should have been published in 2015 since Lee made it clear in her lucid years that she wanted it to remain unpublished and that To Kill a Mockingbird was meant to stand alone. The sequel is the story of the Finch family's later years, in which Scout learns about Atticus' character flaws.
Though Harper Lee's work is not yet in the public domain, we pay tribute to her profound contribution to classic American literature. We feature it in our collection of Pulitzer Prize Fiction. So affirming was Lee's novel, "Atticus" was the name chosen by the editor for his firstborn child.

Harper

Frank Herbert (1920-1986) created the most beloved novel in the annals of science fiction, Dune. He was a man of many facets, of countless passageways that ran through an intricate mind. His magnum opus is a reflection of this, a classic work that stands as one of the most complex, multi-layered novels ever written in any genre. Today the novel is more popular than ever, with new readers continually discovering it and telling their friends to pick up a copy. It has been translated into dozens of languages and has sold almost 20 million copies.
As a child growing up in Washington State, Frank Herbert was curious about everything. He carried around a Boy Scout pack with books in it, and he was always reading. He loved Rover Boys' adventures, as well as the stories of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and the science fiction of Edgar Rice Burroughs. On his eighth birthday, Frank stood on top of the breakfast table at his family home and announced, "I wanna be an author." His maternal grandfather, John McCarthy, said of the boy, "It's frightening. A kid that small shouldn't be so smart." Young Frank was not unlike Alia in Dune, a person having adult comprehension of a child's body. In grade school, he was the acknowledged authority on everything. If his classmates wanted to know the answer to something, such as about sexual functions or how to make a carbide cannon, they would invariably say, "Let's ask Herbert. He'll know."

Frank

Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters, Anna, Elizabeth, and [Abba] May, were primarily educated by their father, teacher/philosopher A. Bronson Alcott, and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May. Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enlightened by visits to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library, excursions into nature with Henry David Thoreau, and theatricals in the barn at "Hillside" (now "The Wayside").&nbsp;&nbsp;
Like the character of "Jo March" in Little Women, young Louisa was a tomboy. "No boy could be my friend till I had beaten him in a race," she claimed, "and no girl if she refused to climb trees, leap fences." For Louisa, writing was an early passion. She had a rich imagination, and her stories often became the basis of melodramas she and her sisters would act out for friends. Louisa preferred to play the "lurid" parts in these plays -- "the villains, ghosts, bandits, and disdainful queens," as she put it.
At age 15, troubled by the poverty plaguing her family, she vowed, "I will do something by and by. Don’t care what, teach, sew, act, write, anything to help the family, and I’ll be rich and famous and happy before I die; see if I won’t!" Confronting a society that offered little opportunity to women seeking employment, Louisa nonetheless persisted: ". . . I will make a battering ram of my head and make my way through this rough and tumble world." Whether as a teacher, seamstress, governess, or household servant, for many years, Louisa did any work she could find.
Louisa’s career as an author began at the age of eight with poetry and later short stories that appeared in popular magazines. In 1854, when she was 22, her first book, Flower Fables, was published. A major critical milestone along her literary path was Hospital Sketches (1863), a truthful and poignant account of her service as a Civil War nurse in Washington, DC, inspired by the letters she wrote home to her family in Concord.
In 1868, when Louisa was 35 years old, her publisher, Thomas Niles, asked her to write "a girls' story." The 492 pages of Little Women, Part I was dashed off within three months at the desk Louisa's father built for her in her Orchard House bed chamber. The novel is largely based on the coming-of-age stories of Louisa and her sisters, with many of the domestic experiences inspired by events that actually took place at Orchard House.
Virtually overnight, Little Women was a phenomenal success, primarily due to its timeless storytelling about the first American juvenile heroine, "Jo March," who acted from her own individuality -- a free-thinking, flawed person, rather than the idealized stereotype of feminine perfection then prevalent in children’s fiction. In all, Louisa published over 30 books and collections of short stories and poems. She died on 6 March 1888, only two days after her father, and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord.

Louisa

Neil Richard Gaiman was born on November 10, 1960, in Portchester, England. He originated from a family of Eastern European Jewish descent. His father, David Bernard Gaiman, worked at their family chain of stores, while his mother, Sheila Gaiman, was a pharmacist. In 1965 the family moved to East Grinstead, West Sussex, where Neil grew up with a profound love for reading, beginning as early as age 4.&nbsp;
Some of his favorite childhood books include J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Batman, and other comics. Gaiman received early education at various church schools, including Fonthill School in East Grinstead, Ardingly College, and Whitgift School in Croydon.
When Gaiman began to outgrow comic books in his teenage years, he realized the lack of comic books for an older mature audience. He, therefore, decided to fill the gap himself. Although he wanted to write comic books, Gaiman had little idea how to go about it. Following his graduation from high school in 1977, Gaiman became a journalist writing articles for a number of renowned publications such as the Sunday Times, the Observer, Knave, and Time Out.&nbsp;
In March 1985, Gaiman married McGrath after the birth of their son Michael in 1983. The couple had two more children, Holly and Madeleine. In 1984, Gaiman wrote his first book, a biography of the band Duran Duran. He continued writing articles and interviews in magazines under pseudonyms. However, in 1987, Gaiman waved goodbye to journalism, stating, “British newspapers can make up anything they want and publish it as fact.”&nbsp;
Also, in the late 1980s, Gaiman published Don’t Panic: The Official Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Companion. Gaiman started writing comic books, continuing the series of Marvelman after its original creator and Gaiman’s friend Alan Moore abandoned it. After his impressive work on Marvelman, Gaiman was offered to write the limited series of Black Orchard and also to re-write an old character, The Sandman. From December 1988 to March 1966, Gaiman produced work on The Sandman, which was later collected in 12 volumes.&nbsp;
More significant comic works by Neil Gaiman include The Books of Magic (1989), Lady Justice, and Mr. Hero. The Newmatic Man, Teknophage, Tales of the White Wolf, Whatever happened to the Caper Crusader, as well as contributions to Wednesday Comics.

Neil

Orson Scott Card is the author of the novels Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and Speaker for the Dead, which is widely read by adults and younger readers, and are increasingly used in schools. His most recent series, the young adult Pathfinder series (Pathfinder, Ruins, Visitors), and the fantasy Mithermages series (Lost Gate, Gate Thief, Gatefather), are taking readers in new directions.
Besides these and other science fiction novels, Card writes contemporary fantasy (Magic Street, Enchantment, Lost Boys), biblical novels (Stone Tables, Rachel, and Leah), the American frontier fantasy series The Tales of Alvin Maker (beginning with Seventh Son), poetry (An Open Book), and many plays and scripts, including his "freshened" Shakespeare scripts for Romeo &amp; Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Merchant of Venice.
Card was born in Washington and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he teaches occasional classes and workshops and directs plays. He frequently teaches writing and literature courses at Southern Virginia University.
Card currently lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card. His primary activities are writing a review column for the local Rhinoceros Times and feeding birds, squirrels, chipmunks, possums, and raccoons on the patio.

Orson

Philip Hampson Knight (born February 24, 1938) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Nike, Inc., and was previously chairman and CEO of the company. As of October 3, 2022, Knight was ranked by Forbes as the 27th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$35.2 billion. He is also the owner of the stop motion film production company Laika.&nbsp;
Knight is a graduate of the University of Oregon and Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was in the track and field club under coach Bill Bowerman at the University of Oregon, with whom he would co-found Nike. Knight has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to each of his alma maters, as well as Oregon Health &amp; Science University. He has donated over $2 billion to the three institutions.

Phil

Born in New York in 1919, Jerome David Salinger dropped out of several schools before enrolling in a writing class at Columbia University, publishing his first piece ("The Young Folks") in Story magazine. Soon after, the New Yorker picked up the heralded "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," and more pieces followed, including "Slight Rebellion off Madison" in 1941, an early Holden Caulfield story. Following a stint in Europe for World War II, Salinger returned to New York and began work on his signature novel, 1951's "The Catcher in the Rye," an immediate bestseller for its iconoclastic hero and forthright use of profanity.&nbsp;
Following this success, Salinger retreated to his Cornish, New Hampshire, home where he grew increasingly private, eventually erecting a wall around his property and publishing just three more books: "Nine Stories," "Franny and Zooey," "Raise High the Roof Beam, and Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction." Salinger was married twice and had two children. He died of natural causes on January 27, 2010, in New Hampshire at the age of 91.

J.D.

Alexandre Dumas, père (French for "father," akin to Senior in English), born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, was a French writer, best known for his numerous historical novels of high adventure, which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world. Many of his novels, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, and The Vicomte de Bragelonne, were serialized. Dumas also wrote plays and magazine articles and was a prolific correspondent.
Dumas was of Haitian descent and mixed race. His father, General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, was born in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) to Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, a French nobleman, and Marie-Cessette Dumas, a black slave. At age 14, Thomas-Alexandre was taken by his father to France, where he was educated in a military academy and entered the military for what became an illustrious career.
Dumas's father's aristocratic rank helped young Alexandre Dumas acquire work with Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, then as a writer, finding early success. He became one of the leading authors of the French Romantic Movement in Paris.

Alexandre

Sir William Gerald Golding CBE FRSL was a British novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel Lord of the Flies (1954), he published another twelve volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 1980, he was awarded the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage, the first novel in his sea trilogy, To the Ends of the Earth. He was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Literature.
As a result of his contributions to literature, Golding was knighted in 1988. In addition, he was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2008, The Times ranked Golding third on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945."
While still a teacher at Bishop Wordsworth's School in 1951, Golding began writing a manuscript of the novel initially titled Strangers from Within. In September 1953, after rejections from seven other publishers, Golding sent a manuscript to Faber and Faber and was initially rejected by their reader, Jan Perkins, who labeled it as "Rubbish &amp; dull. Pointless". His book, however, was championed by Charles Monteith, a new editor at the firm. Monteith asked for changes to the text, and the novel was published in September 1954 as Lord of the Flies.
After moving in 1958 from Salisbury to nearby Bowerchalke, he met his fellow villager and walking companion James Lovelock. The two discussed Lovelock's hypothesis that the living matter of the planet Earth functions like a single organism. Golding suggested naming this hypothesis after Gaia, the personification of the Earth in Greek mythology and the mother of the Titans. His publishing success made it possible for Golding to resign from his teaching post at Bishop Wordsworth's School in 1961. Instead, he spent that academic year in the United States as a writer-in-residence at Hollins College (now Hollins University) near Roanoke, Virginia.
Golding won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Darkness Visible in 1979 and the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage in 1980. In 1983, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and was, according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "an unexpected and even contentious choice." In 1988, Golding was appointed a Knight Bachelor. Then, in September 1993, only a few months after his unexpected death, the First International William Golding Conference was held in France.
His first novel, Lord of the Flies, describes a group of boys stranded on a tropical island descending into a lawless and increasingly wild existence before being rescued. The Inheritors (1955) depicts a tribe of gentle Neanderthals encountering modern humans, who, by comparison, are deceitful and violent. His 1956 novel Pincher Martin records the thoughts of a drowning sailor. Free Fall (1959) explores the issue of freedom of choice. The novel's narrator, a World War Two soldier in a German POW Camp, endures interrogation and solitary confinement.
After these events and while recollecting the experiences, he looks back over his choices, trying to trace precisely where he lost the freedom to make his own decisions. The Spire (1964) follows the construction (and near collapse) of an impossibly large spire on the top of a medieval cathedral (generally assumed to be Salisbury Cathedral).
Golding's 1967 novel, The Pyramid, consists of three linked stories with a shared setting in a small English town based partly on Marlborough, where Golding grew up. The Scorpion God (1971) contains three novellas. The first is set in an ancient Egyptian court ("The Scorpion God"); the second describes a prehistoric African hunter-gatherer group ("Clonk, Clonk"); and the third is in the court of a Roman emperor ("Envoy Extraordinary"). The last of these, initially published in 1956, was reworked by Golding into a play, The Brass Butterfly, in 1958. From 1971 to 1979, Golding published no novels. After this period, he published Darkness Visible (1979): a story involving terrorism, pedophilia, and a mysterious figure who survives a fire in the Blitz and appears to have supernatural powers.
In 1980, Golding published Rites of Passage, the first of his novels about a voyage to Australia in the early nineteenth century. The book won the Booker Prize in 1980, and Golding followed this success with Close Quarters (1987) and Fire Down Below (1989) to complete his 'sea trilogy,' later published as one volume entitled To the Ends of the Earth. In 1984, he published The Paper Men: an account of the struggles between a novelist and his would-be biographer.

William

Ernest Cline is an internationally best-selling novelist, screenwriter, father, and full-time geek. He is the author of the novels Ready Player One and Armada and co-screenwriter of the film adaptation of Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg. His books have been published in over fifty countries and have spent more than 100 weeks on The New York Times Best Sellers list. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his family, a time-traveling DeLorean, and a large collection of classic video games.
Cline was born and raised in Ashland, Ohio, the son of Ernest Christy Cline and Faye Imogene (née Williams) Cline. As a youth in the 1970s and 1980s, Cline was "addicted to video games and movies," especially Star Wars, the movies of John Hughes, and the tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons &amp; Dragons. He worked in information technology in his twenties and worked on screenwriting during his spare time.

Ernest

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and a Fellow of Pembroke College, both at the University of Oxford. He then moved to the same university to become the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and a Fellow of Merton College.&nbsp;
He held these positions from 1945 until his retirement in 1959. Tolkien was a close friend of C. S. Lewis, a co-member of the informal literary discussion group The Inklings. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972. After Tolkien's death, his son Christopher published a series of works based on his father's extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. Together with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, these form a connected body of tales, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about a fantasy world called Arda and Middle-earth.&nbsp;
Between 1951 and 1955, Tolkien applied the term legendarium to the more significant part of these writings. While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien, the great success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings led directly to a popular resurgence of the genre. This has caused him to be popularly identified as the "father" of modern fantasy literature—or, more precisely, of high fantasy.
Tolkien's fantasy books on Middle-earth, especially The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, drew on many influences, including his philological interest in language, Christianity, mythology, archaeology, ancient and modern literature, and personal experience. His philological work centered on studying Old English literature, especially Beowulf, and he acknowledged its importance to his writings. In addition, he was a gifted linguist, influenced by Germanic, Celtic, Finnish, and Greek languages and mythology.

J.R.R.

Eliot

In the not-so-distant future, economic inequality and persistent surveillance push Oakland to the brink of civil war.
Lilly Miyamoto is a passionate analog photographer striving to pursue an ever-more-distant dream. Huian Li is preeminent among the Silicon Valley elite as the founder and CEO of the pervasive tech giant Cumulus.
Graham Chandler is a frustrated intelligence agent forging a new path through the halls of techno-utopian royalty. But when Huian rescues Lilly from a run-in with private security forces, it sets off a chain of events that will change their lives and the world.
The adventure accelerates into a mad dash of political intrigue, relentless ambition, and questionable salvation. Will they survive to find themselves and mend a broken system?

Ev Williams is a technology entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. He is best known for co-founding Blogger, Twitter, and Medium. Williams is also the founder of Obvious Corporation, a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage startups.
Williams grew up in Nebraska and attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. After graduating in 1994, he moved to California and got a job as a software engineer at O'Reilly Media. In the late 90s, he developed a web application called Pyra Labs, which was later acquired by Google and became the foundation for their blogging product, Blogger.
Williams left Google in 2003 to launch Odeo, a podcasting platform. Odeo was eventually sold to SonicMountain, and Williams moved on to start Obvious Corporation in 2006. In 2008, he co-founded Twitter with Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, and Biz Stone.
Twitter became an overnight success, and Williams served as the company's CEO from 2008 to 2010. During this time, he helped the company expand and develop new products. He stepped down from the company in 2011 and began investing in startups and early-stage companies.
In 2012, Williams founded Medium, a platform for publishing and sharing stories. Medium has become a popular platform for writers and journalists to share their work. Williams served as the company's CEO until 2017 when he stepped down and became the company's chairman.
In addition to his investments and businesses, Williams is also a philanthropist. In 2014, he founded the Williams Family Foundation, which focuses on education, health, and the environment. He has also donated to various organizations, including the American Red Cross, CARE, and the ACLU.
Williams is an inspiration to many entrepreneurs and tech professionals. He has demonstrated a passion for building companies, investing in startups, and giving back to his community. His success has shown that with hard work and dedication, anything is possible.

Daniel Pink is an award-winning author and speaker whose books on business and professional success have sold millions of copies in dozens of countries and been translated into over 35 languages. His latest book, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, is a deep dive into the science of timing.
Pink has written six books, including four New York Times bestsellers. His first book, Free Agent Nation, set off a national debate on the changing nature of work and was praised by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter. His second book, A Whole New Mind, predicted the rise of right-brain thinking in the workplace and spent six months on the New York Times bestseller list.&nbsp;
His third book, Drive, a No. 1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, explored the science of motivation and revealed the surprising truth about what really drives us to succeed. His fourth book, To Sell is Human, looked at the changing nature of sales, and was named one of the best books of the year by Amazon, Apple, and the Financial Times. His fifth book, When, is a deep dive into the science of timing.&nbsp;
As well as writing books, Pink is a leading business speaker and consultant. He has been described by the American Management Association as “one of the most influential business thinkers in the world,” and millions of people around the world have watched his talks. He has advised a range of leading organizations, including the United States and British governments, Microsoft, Pixar, and the NFL.&nbsp;
Pink has also been a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for the Sunday Telegraph, and a frequent commentator on National Public Radio. He was a top-ranking student at Northwestern University, where he won a Goldman Sachs Global Leadership Award, and he holds a degree in philosophy from Yale University.&nbsp;
Pink’s books have been praised by a wide range of business, academic, and political leaders. Former U.S. President Barack Obama said of Pink’s book Drive, “It’s a book that every leader in America should read.”&nbsp;
Daniel Pink’s books, talks, and consulting services have inspired millions of people around the world. He is widely recognized as one of the leading authorities on business, motivation, and success.

Daniel

Brad Feld is an American entrepreneur, author, and venture capitalist. He co-founded Foundry Group, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology companies. He is also a co-founder of Techstars, a mentorship-driven startup accelerator that has helped launch over 1,200 companies. In addition, he is an active blogger and author, having written several books on entrepreneurship, venture capital, and startups.
Feld has had a successful career as a venture capitalist, with many of the companies in Foundry Group's portfolio having gone public or being acquired. He has also promoted the startup ecosystem and is a well-known figure in the technology industry. Feld is considered a leading expert on venture capitalism and startup mentorship. He's been a regular speaker and mentor for many startup events and conferences, sharing his knowledge and experience to help other entrepreneurs.
Feld is a strong advocate for the startup ecosystem and has been actively involved in various organizations that promote entrepreneurship, such as Startup Colorado and The Startup Collective. His experiences and knowledge of the startup ecosystem are well respected, and he is considered an influential figure in the startup scene.
Brad Feld is an author and has written several books on entrepreneurship, venture capital, and startups. Some of his notable works include:
<ul>
<li>"Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist" (with Jason Mendelson)</li>
<li>"Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City"</li>
<li>"The Startup Community Way: Entrepreneurial Management in the 21st Century."</li>
<li>"Do More Faster: Techstars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup" (with David Cohen)</li>
<li>"Investing in Entrepreneurs: A guide to Venture Capital" (with Jon Finkel)</li>
</ul>
His books are considered valuable resources for entrepreneurs, investors, and people interested in the startup ecosystem. They cover various aspects of the startup journey and provide insights, strategies, and real-life examples that are relevant and actionable. His books are well-received by both the startup community and the business world. He uses his own experiences and the experiences of the companies in his portfolio to share his knowledge and make it easily accessible to people interested in the startup world. He's considered a respected author in the field and continues to write and share his knowledge.

Brad

A.G. Riddle

Brad Feld

Tim Pratt

Ramez Naam

Craig Newmark

In Cumulus, Eliot Peper paints a vivid picture of a near-future San Francisco, where technology has the power to both unite and divide society. He explores the potential consequences of letting tech giants control our lives, making us question our reliance on them.

The Power of Technology

Peper's book makes you realize the importance of privacy in the digital age. It's a wake-up call to protect your personal information from being exploited. After reading Cumulus, you might want to check your privacy settings and be more cautious about what you share online.

The Importance of Privacy

Cumulus takes a hard look at the role of corporations in society. It shows how they can manipulate our lives for their benefit. This book will make you think twice about the power that corporations hold and how they use it.

The Role of Corporations

The book explores the widening gap between the rich and the poor, a theme that resonates in today's world. It's a reminder that we need to address this issue before it's too late. Cumulus encourages readers to research more about socioeconomic disparity and find ways to bridge the gap.

The Impact of Socioeconomic Disparity

Peper also highlights the potential of green technology in Cumulus. He shows how it can be a solution to many of our environmental problems. If you're interested in sustainable living, you'll find this aspect of the book particularly engaging.

The Potential of Green Technology

Cumulus

Eliot Peper is a novelist based in Oakland, CA. He is the author of Reap3r, Veil, Breach, Borderless, Bandwidth, Cumulus, Neon Fever Dream, Exit Strategy, Power Play, and Version 1.0.
His books have earned praise from Seth Godin, Kim Stanley Robinson, Malka Older, Cory Doctorow, Tim O’Reilly, Amal El-Mohtar, Robin Sloan, and Ev Williams, as well as the New York Times Book Review, BBC, Popular Science, Businessweek, San Francisco Magazine, Every, Newsweek, io9, Boing Boing, Publisher’s Weekly, Polygon, and Ars Technica.
His writing has appeared in the Verge, Tor.com, Harvard Business Review, the Boston Globe, OneZero, NEO.LIFE, TechCrunch, GEN, Terraform, Future, Techdirt, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, and he has given talks at Google, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Comic Con, Niantic, Future in Review, Qualcomm, Interintellect, SXSW, and the Conference on World Affairs.
Eliot is the co-creator of the award-winning True Blue website and the critically acclaimed game Machine Learning President. He publishes a blog, sends a monthly newsletter, and tweets more than he probably should.
When he’s not writing, Eliot consults for technology founders and investors. He pursued graduate studies in international affairs, survived dengue fever, translated Virgil’s Aeneid from the original Latin, worked as an entrepreneur-in-residence at a venture capital firm, and explored the ancient Himalayan kingdom of Mustang.

A dark secret hides in the swirling dust and exultant revelry of Burning Man. Asha Amarasuriya is bored and struggling to get by as a martial arts instructor in Oakland.
When an enigmatic seductress offers her a golden ticket, Asha decides to take a leap of faith and head to Burning Man. But there is more than meets the eye at the infamous desert pilgrimage, and Asha gets sucked into a quest to unravel a sinister mystery at the heart of Black Rock City.
Will Asha and her friends survive to expose the shadowy conspiracy? By the time the Man burns, their lives will have changed forever.

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Eliot Peper's Neon Fever Dream takes us on a thrilling journey into the dark side of technology. The book explores how technology, when misused, can lead to devastating consequences. It's a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of technology and society.

Exploring the Dark Side of Technology

The protagonist, Asha, shows us the power of resilience in the face of adversity. Despite being caught in a dangerous web of deceit, she never gives up. Her courage and determination are truly inspiring. If you're looking for a book that will motivate you to stay strong no matter what, this is it.

The Power of Resilience

Neon Fever Dream is a gripping tale that keeps you on the edge of your seat. The author masterfully unravels the mysteries, keeping you guessing till the end. If you love books that keep you hooked till the last page, you should definitely check this one out.

Unraveling Mysteries

Set against the backdrop of the Burning Man festival, the book gives us a glimpse into different cultures and lifestyles. It's a great way to explore and understand diverse perspectives. So, if you're someone who loves to learn about different cultures, you'll find this book fascinating.

Exploring Different Cultures

Eliot Peper beautifully portrays the complexities of human relationships in his book. He shows us how trust, betrayal, and love can shape our lives. If you're interested in understanding the intricacies of human relationships, you should definitely give this book a read.

Eliot Peper

Best author’s book

Cumulus

Written books

Cumulus

Neon Fever Dream

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