George Saunders is the author of eight books, including the story collections
Pastoralia and
Tenth of December, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He has received fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 2006 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2013 he was awarded the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story and was included in
Time's list of the one hundred most influential people in the world. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University.
Lane Smith is a four-time recipient of the
New York Times Best Illustrated Book award and a two-time Caldecott Honor recipient. In 2012 the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art named him a Carle Artist for "lifelong innovation in the field of children's picture books," and in 2014 he was awarded the lifetime achievement award from the Society of Illustrators. He is the illustrator of many books, including
The Stinky Cheese Man, and the author/illustrator of
It's a Book, Grandpa Green, and
John, Paul, George & Ben, among others. He is married to book designer Molly Leach.