Larry Niven is the award-winning author of the Ringworld series, along with many other science fiction masterpieces and fantasy including the Magic Goes Away series. His Beowulf's Children, co-authored with Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes, was a New York Times bestseller. He has received the Nebula Award, five Hugos, four Locus Awards, two Ditmars, the Prometheus, and the Robert A. Heinlein Award, among other honors. He lives in Chatsworth, California.

BRENDA COOPER is a futurist who works with Glen Hiemstra at Futurist.com.  She’s the co-author of the novel Building Harlequin's Moon, which she wrote with Larry Niven.  Her novel The Silver Ship and the Sea won the 2008 Endeavour Award. Her solo and collaborative short fiction has appeared in multiple magazines, including Analog, Asimov’s, Strange Horizons,  Oceans of the Mind, and The Salal Review.  She lives in Kirkland, Washington.