Contributors

Richard J. DeMartino, the co-author along with Erich Fromm and D.T. Suzuki of the little 1960's classic, Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis, died January 6 2013 in New York. DeMartino retired from the Department of Religion at Temple University as a senior associate professor in 1986 after teaching there for some 20 years.
Born in Harlem, New York on August 28, 1922, DeMartino graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School. He earned his bachelor's degree in social science at the City College of New York. He was recruited as a Phi Beta Kappa member into the U.S. Navy Language School and he served active duty at the Joint Intelligence Center in Pearl Harbor and as naval language officer with the U.S. force occupying Japan in 1945-1946. After his discharge, he served in Tokyo as historical consultant to the defense panel of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.
During this period, he met D.T. Suzuki and began studying Zen Buddhism in Kita-Kamakura with him. DeMartino's studies continued during Suzuki's early years in the United States through the 1950s at the University of Hawaii, Claremont Graduate School, Harvard Divinity School and Columbia University as Suzuki's assistant.
DeMartino also studied with Zen thinker Shin'ichi Hisamatsu and translated many of Hisamatsu's writings into English. He participated in, and served as interpreter for, extended exchanges between Paul Tillich and Hisamatsu, which he edited for publication in the Eastern Buddhist as 'Conversations between Dr. Paul Tillich and Dr. Shin'ichi Hisamatsu.'
DeMartino's own treatments of the human situation and Zen Buddhism in his Ph.D. dissertation and several articles serve as a unique conceptual introduction to Zen Buddhism, on which he focused his academic career.
He is survived by his centenarian aunt who lives across the street, his extended family of cousins, his former students and his wife.

Deirdre Mask graduated from Harvard College summa cum laude, and attended the University of Oxford before returning to Harvard for law school, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. She completed a master's in writing at the National University of Ireland. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Guardian. Originally from North Carolina, she has taught at Harvard and the London School of Economics. She lives with her husband and daughters in London.

John Masters was a British novelist and regular officer of the Indian Army. He wrote several novels set in India, the most famous of which, Bhowani Junction, was turned into a successful film starring Ava Gardner. He died in 1983.

Paris Marx is a tech critic, journalist and creator and host of the acclaimed podcast Tech Won't Save Us. In 2024 he published the series Data Vampires, an exposé of the hyperscale data centre industry. He is the author of Road to Nowhere, and his writing has appeared in Wired, TIME, NBC News and CBC News. Hyperscale is Marx's second book.

His award winning Tech Won't Save Us podcast has 25,000 listeners per episode, while his Disconnect newsletter has a reach of over 10,000 people who get his updates right in their inbox. Beyond that, he has over 50,000 followers on Twitter/X, and tens of thousands more on Bluesky, Instagram, Threads, and all the rest. He is based in Newfoundland, Canada.

Dan Malakin has twice been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, and his debut novel, The Regret, was a Kindle bestseller. He is also the author of The Box and The Wreckage of Us. When not writing thrillers, Dan works as a data security consultant, teaching corporations how to protect themselves from hackers. He lives in North London with his wife and daughter.

Frederic Manning was born in Sydney, Australia in 1882. He moved to England in 1903 where he pursued a literary career, reviewing and writing poetry. He enlisted in 1915 in the Shropshire Light Infantry and went to France in 1916 as 'Private 19022.' The Shropshires saw heavy fighting on the Somme and Manning's four months there provided the background to Her Privates We. He died in 1935.

Dr Adriana Marais is an award-winning theoretical physicist and internationally renowned advocate for off-world exploration. Her PhD and postdoctoral work in quantum biology focused on photosynthesis and the origins of the building blocks of life in space.

She was Head of Innovation at SAP Africa between 2017 and 2019, and is currently a Director at the Foundation for Space Development Africa. Their Africa2Moon mission has been selected for launch to the Moon with China's Chang'e-8 mission is scheduled for 2029, and Marais is Head of Science for the mission.

In 2020, she was among 5 global finalists for Women in Tech's the Most Disruptive Woman in Tech Award, and was one of 100 candidates selected for Mars One. In 2025 she received Forbes Africa's Award for Academic Excellence at the Forbes Woman Africa Leading Women Summit, as well as the Most Disruptive Award at the Women in Tech Global Awards Ceremony in Paris.

Roisin Maguire lives in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, where she works as a business manager. In 2019, she completed the Write Here… in Belfast novel-writing course, taught by Jan Carson, which was designed to discover exciting, new Northern Irish voices in fiction.

Benoit Mandelbrot was Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Yale University. He was the inventor of fractal geometry, a leading figure in James Gleick's Chaos and has received the Wolf Prize in Physics, the Japan Prize in science and technology and numerous other awards.

Lucy Mangan is a journalist and columnist. She spent two years training as a solicitor, but left as soon as she qualified and went to work much more happily in a bookshop instead. She got a work experience placement at the Guardian in 2003 and hung around until they gave her a job. She has a weekly column in Stylist magazine. Lucy's memoir Bookworm, a personal history and celebration of children's literature, was published by Square Peg in March 2018.

Stuart Maister is a former BBC and ITN national TV and radio reporter who developed the concept of the Strategic Narrative: the core story that clarifies direction and vision in large organisations. His first award-winning business was bought by a NASDAQ firm.

Kevin Vaughan-Smith is a former EY Associate Partner and consultant who has worked with business leaders including IBM, BP, Aviva, Vodafone, O2, and 3 of the Big 4, including 7 years as Managing Director of Franklin Covey UK.