JAMES GUNN is Emeritus Professor of English at K.U. and has published more than a dozen novels and half a dozen collections of stories, and has edited more than a dozen and a half books. His best-known novels are The Immortals, The Dreamers, The Listeners, Kampus and The Joy Makers. The Immortals was filmed as The Immortal and became a TV series. His academic publications include Alternate Worlds: The Illustrated History of Science Fiction, The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, the six-volume anthology The Road to Science Fiction, The Science of Science-Fiction Writing, Speculations on Speculation: Theories of Science Fiction and Inside Science Fiction.

MARLEEN S BARR is known for her pioneering work in feminist science fiction and teaches in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University. She has won the Science Fiction Research Association Pilgrim Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction criticism. Barr is the author of Alien to Feminity: Speculative Fiction and Feminist Theory, Lost in Space: Probing Feminist Science Fiction and Beyond, Feminist Fabulation: Space/Postmodern Fiction and Genre Fission: A New Discouse Practice for Cultural Studies. Barr has edited many anthologies and co-edited the special science fiction issue of PMLA.

MATTHEW CANDELARIA received his PhD from the University of Kansas and has published articles on science fiction. He is recipient of the 2003 Golden Quill Award from the L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future Contest and co-editor of Speculations on Speculation: Theories of Science Fiction.