Virginia Woolf(1882-1941) was an English novelist, critic, and publisher whobecame a key figure of literary modernism. She published many novels as well asnonfiction and criticism. In 1941, she committed suicide by drowning herself in theRiver Ouse, near her Sussex home.

Joanna Kavennais a British novelist and travel writer. Her works includeThe FieldGuide to RealityThe Ice Museum,Inglorious, andThe Birth of Love. Her short storiesand essays have appeared inThe New Yorker, theLondon Review of Books,Arc,TheGuardian, andThe New York Times. She has received the Alistair Horne VisitingFellowship and the Orange Prize for New Writing, and in 2013 was named as oneofGranta's Best of Young British Novelists. She lives in Oxford.