Contributors

Gregory White Smith is, with Steven Naifeh, the co-author of the Pulitzer Prize winning biography of Jackson Pollock (the basis for the film Pollock), which was also a finalist for the National Book Award and a NYT bestseller; and the co-author of Van Gogh.

Elie Wiesel was born in 1928 in the town of Sighet, now part of Romania. During World War II, he, with his family and other Jews from the area, were deported to the German concentration camps, where his parents and younger sister perished. Wiesel and his two older sisters survived. Liberated from Buchenwald in 1945 by advancing Allied troops, he was taken to Paris where he studied at the Sorbonne and worked as a journalist.
In 1958, he published his first book, La Nuit, a memoir of his experiences in the concentration camps. He has since authored nearly thirty books, some of which use these events as their basic material. In his many lectures, Wiesel has concerned himself with the situation of the Jews and other groups who have suffered persecution and death because of their religion, race or national origin. He has been outspoken on the plight of Soviet Jewry, on Ethiopian Jewry and on behalf of the State of Israel today.
Wiesel made his home in New York City, and became a United States citizen. He was a visiting scholar at Yale University, a Distinguished Professor of Judaic Studies at the City College of New York, and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University where he taught 'Literature of Memory.' Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council from 1980 – 1986, Wiesel served on numerous boards of trustees and advisors. He died in 2016.

Emma Whipday is Senior Lecturer in Renaissance Literature at Newcastle University, an AHRC BBC New Generation Thinker, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She is an expert in Shakespeare, early modern literature, women's history, theatre history, and the history of the home and family.

Erin White is an essayist and the author of the memoir Give Up for You. Her writing has been previously published in The New York Times, The Rumpus and elsewhere. She lives in Minnesota with her wife and daughters.

Nicola White won the Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award in 2008 and in 2012 was Leverhulme Writer in Residence at Edinburgh University. The Rosary Garden won the Dundee International Book Prize, was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize, and selected as one of the four best debuts by Val McDermid at Harrogate. She grew up in Dublin and New York, and now lives in the Scottish Highlands.

Jonathan White is Professor of Politics at the London School of Economics. Based at LSE's European Institute, he has published widely on democracy and the politics of emergency. He has written for the Guardian and New Statesman, and received the British Academy Brian Barry Prize for Excellence in Political Science.

Dame Vivienne Westwood is one of the icons of our age: fashion designer, activist, co-creator of punk, global brand and grandmother. Her career has successfully spanned five decades and her work has influenced millions across the world.

Alex Wheatle (1963-2025) was born to Jamaican parents living in London. He spent most of his childhood in a children's home, which he left at 14 to live in a hostel in Brixton. At 18, he was involved in the Brixton uprising and went to prison for 3 months. On his release, he continued to perform as a DJ and MC under the name Yardman Irie, moving in the early '90s on to the performance poetry circuit as The Brixton Bard. His second novel, East of Acre Lane, won the London New Writers Award (2000).

Michael Wex (born September 12, 1954) is a Canadian novelist, playwright, translator, lecturer, performer, and author of books on language and literature. His specialty is Yiddish and his book Born to Kvetch was a surprise bestseller in 2005. Wex lives in Toronto with his wife and daughter Sabina.
Michael Wex was born in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada to a family of descendants of Rebbes of Ciechanów and Stryków. He has taught at the University of Toronto and the University of Michigan.

Cory Wharton-Malcolm is a running coach, Runner's World columnist, founder of West London running crew TrackMafia and Apple Fitness+ trainer who embarks on running adventures all over the world with 'Time To Run'. Previously Nike Run Club's European Head Coach and still the voice of the Nike Run Club app, he has been featured in publications including Guardian, Evening Standard, Men's Health and Metro.