Gwen Gray Schwartz teaches creative nonfiction and science writing at the University of Mount Union in northeast Ohio. She lives and works in a community of readers and writers who come together for the annual One Book One Community events, in which she happily participates.

Elizabeth Bleicher is associate professor of English and director of the Exploratory Program for undeclared students at Ithaca College. She directed Dickens in Ithaca, a semester-long series of fourteen events to bring community and college members together to celebrate Charles Dickens's 200th Birthday.

Paul Gaffney is an associate professor of English at Hiram College. He studies linguistics and medieval literature, with particular interests in material and popular culture. He helped organize and run Hiram College’s Big Read events in 2009 and 2010.

Maria Judd is an English teacher at Streetsboro High School with twenty-five years of experience. She partners with Hiram College for Big Read Community Events and serves as a council member of the Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature.

Kirsten Parkinson directs Hiram College’s Lindsay-Crane Center for Writing and Literature. She has directed or codirected three community reading programs and successfully written seven grant applications to fund these programs, including three NEA Big Read grants and an NEH Challenge Grant.