Maya Lin received her bachelor's degree from Yale, where she studied architecture and sculpture. During her senior year she won a nationwide competition to create a design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. Lin has created a remarkable body of work that includes large-scale site-specific installations, intimate studio artworks, architectural works, and memorials.

John McPhee began his writing career at Time magazine which led to his long association with The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1965. William L. Fox is director of the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno. Paul Goldberger is a contributing editor for Vanity Fair magazine. From 1997 to 2011 he was the architecture critic for The New Yorker. He began his career at The New York Times. Lisa Phillips has been the Toby Devan Lewis Director of the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, since 1999. Dava Sobel, a former New York Times science reporter is the author of Longitude, Galileo's Daughter, and The Planets. Michael Brenson is a critic, scholar, and teacher. Philip Jodidio has written numerous books on architecture and art.