Contributors

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.

Helen Humphreys is a Canadian novelist and poet. She was born in London, England, and now lives in Kingston, Ontario. Humphreys' first novel, Leaving Earth, was a New York Times Notable Book in 1998 and won the City of Toronto Book Award.

Eva Hoffman has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Whiting Award for writing and the Prix Italia for radio. Her books include Lost in Translation and the novel Illuminations.

Ryan Holiday is one of the world's bestselling living philosophers. His books, which include The Obstacle Is the Way, Ego Is the Enemy, The Daily Stoic, Stillness Is the Key and the Stoic Virtues series, have appeared in more than 40 languages and sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. Together, they've spent over 300 weeks on the bestseller lists. He lives outside Austin with his wife and two boys…and a small herd of cows and donkeys and goats. His bookstore, The Painted Porch, sits on historic Main St in Bastrop, Texas.

Follow Ryan on X @ryanholiday and visit his website www.ryanholiday.net

Professor Richard Holmes was one of Britain's most distinguished historians. He was Professor of Military and Security Studies at Cranfield University and the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, and he presented seven BBC TV series, including War Walks and In the Footsteps of Churchill. He was general editor of the Oxford Companion to Military History, and the author of over twenty books. He died on 30th April 2011.

Jim Holt is a prominent essayist and critic on philosophy, mathematics, and science. He is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review, New York Review of Books and Prospect magazine. He lives in New York City. He is the author of Stop Me If You've Heard This [9781846681097] also published by Profile.

Cathy Park Hong has written three books of poetry, and has received some of the most prestigious fellowships for her writing: the Windham-Campbell Prize, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Her essays have been cited by Claudia Rankine, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Ben Lerner, and have been called 'groundbreaking' (Granta) and the 'cornerstone of contemporary criticism' (Ploughshares).

Holger Hoock (b. 1972) is the Carroll J. Amundson Professor of British History at the University of Pittsburgh. His first book, The King's Artists: The Royal Academy of Arts and the Politics of British Culture (OUP, 2003), was runner-up for the 2004 Whitfield Prize in British History.

Philip Hook is a Board member and senior director of Impressionist & Modern art at Sotheby's in London. He previously worked at Christie's in the 19th Century Paintings Department. He has appeared regularly on Antiques Roadshow and is the author of five novels and many books on the art world, including Breakfast at Sotheby's (2013) which was a book of the year in the Sunday Times, Spectator, Financial Times, Guardian and Mail on Sunday.

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.

Beatrice Hitchman is an author and academic. Her first novel Petite Mort was nominated for the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Polari Prize, the HWA Debut Prize and the Authors' Club Best First Novel Prize. She currently works as a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Brighton.