Contributors

Richard L. Hudson is a former managing editor of Wall Street Journal Europe.

Raymond Hull (1919-1985) was a Canadian playwright, television screenwriter, and lecturer. He also wrote many non-fiction books, numerous magazine articles, short stories, and poetry. He is best known as the co-author of the book The Peter Principle with Laurence J. Peter. He is also known for the saying 'He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away.'

He studied creative writing at the University of British Columbia at the age 30 after discovering he had an aptitude for the craft. After graduation, he eventually began writing television screenplays for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He later branched into writing for the stage and in time formed The Gastown Players.

Born in London in 1960, Frieda Hughes is a painter and poet. She has written several children's books, eight collections of poetry, articles for magazines and newspapers, and was the Times Poetry columnist. As a painter, Frieda regularly exhibits in London and has a permanent exhibition at her private gallery in Wales, where she resides with 14 owls, two rescue huskies, an ancient Maltese terrier, five chinchillas, a ferret called 'Socks', a Royal python and her motorbikes.

Dan Hoyer works with Peter Turchin on the Deep Roots of the Modern World, part of the Seshat: Global History Databank Project.

Novelist and poet Michel Houellebecq was born in 1958, on the French island of Reunion. At the age of six, Michel was given over to the care of his paternal grandmother, a communist, whose family name he later adopted. Houellebecq has won many prizes, including the Prix Flore in 1996, the Grand Prix National des Lettres Jeunes Talents in 1998, the Prix Novembre and, most recently, the Prix Goncourt in 2010. His first album, Presence Humaine, was released in 2000. He currently lives in Spain.

Langston Hughes was born in 1902. His first poem in a nationally known magazine was 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers' which appeared in Crisis in 1921. In 1925, Hughes was awarded the first Prize for Poetry by Opportunity magazines for his poem 'The Weary Blue' which gave its title to his first book of poems, published in 1926. He wrote poetry, short stories, song lyrics, essays, humour and plays, and an autobiography, The Big Sea.

Sam K. Horton lives above the moor in Cornwall, drawing on its wild landscape, wide skies and windblown folklore for his work. He trained as a costume designer before moving into visual art. It was during his last creative project that he discovered his talent for writing. This came as a surprise, despite a lifelong love of reading anything within reach, but a welcome one.

Jonathan E. Hillman is the author of The Digital Silk Road, and a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State's Office of Policy Planning. He was previously a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which has been named the #1 think tank in the United States. Hillman is a world authority on China's economic and foreign policy. He has also served as a policy advisor to the U.S. Trade Representative, testified before Congress, briefed Fortune 500 executives, and his commentary has been published in the Washington Post, the Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

Alex Holder is a freelance writer and consultant, who writes for ELLE, Grazia, Refinery29 and the Guardian among others. Her projects have been featured everywhere from the BBC to the New Yorker, while her campaign highlighting the gender
pay gap went viral and helped change an actual law. She has been named one of Business Insider's 30 Most Creative Women globally and listed by the Evening Standard as one of today's 5 Inspiring Female Leaders.

@AlexandreHolder