Steven Pinker

Chair

Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvard University

Geoffrey Nunberg

Chair Emeritus

Professor, School of Information, University of California, Berkeley

Sherman Alexie

Poet; fiction writer

Eric Alterman

Author; Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism, Brooklyn College, City University of New York

Roger Angell

Writer; editor

Natalie Angier

Science journalist; recipient, Pulitzer Prize

Kwame Anthony Appiah

Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University

Margaret Atwood

Writer

Kathryn H. Au

Chief Executive Officer, SchoolRise, LLC; former Dai Ho Chun Professor of Education, University of Hawaii

John Baugh

Margaret Bush Wilson Professor in Arts and Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis; Professor Emeritus of Education and Linguistics, Stanford University

Alison Bechdel

Cartoonist

Carolyn Wilkerson Bell

Susan Duval Adams Professor of English Emerita, Randolph-Macon Women's College

Harold Bloom

Sterling Professor of the Humanities and English, Yale University; MacArthur Fellow

Paul Bloom

Professor of Psychology, Yale University

Roy Blount, Jr.

Writer; radio commentator; former president, Authors Guild

Julian Bond

Former Georgia state legislator; Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Government, American University; Professor of History, University of Virginia

Barbara Taylor Bradford

Writer

Leo Braudy

University Professor and Leo S. Bing Chair in English and American Literature, University of Southern California

Rachel M. Brownstein

Professor of English, Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York

Stephen Budiansky

Writer

Gabrielle Burton

Writer

Lorene Cary

Writer

Walter C. Clemens, Jr.

Writer; Professor of Political Science, Boston University; Associate, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Writer, The Atlantic

Robin Cook

Physician; writer

Maureen Corrigan

Writer; book reviewer; Lecturer and Critic in Residence, Department of English, Georgetown University

Anne Curzan

Associate Professor of English, University of Michigan

Gene D. Dahmen

Attorney; former president, Boston Bar Association; partner, Verrill Dana, LLP

Lydia Davis

Author; translator; Associate Professor and Writer-In-Residence at the University of Albany, SUNY

Lois DeBakey

Writer; lecturer; consultant; Professor, Office of Scientific Communication, Baylor College of Medicine

Frank Deford

Author; commentator; Senior Contributing Writer, Sports Illustrated

Junot Díaz

Author; recipient, Pulitzer Prize

Joan Didion

Author

Annie Dillard

Writer; recipient, Pulitzer Prize

Mark Doty

Poet; Distinguished Writer, Rutgers University

Rita Dove

Writer; Commonwealth Professor of English, University of Virginia; recipient, Pulitzer Prize; former US poet laureate

Esther Dyson

Chairman, EDventure Holdings

Freeman J. Dyson

Writer; physicist; Professor Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study

Anne Edwards

Biographer; novelist; former President, Authors Guild

Louise Erdrich

Author

Carolly Erickson

Historian; writer

James Fallows

Writer; national correspondent, The Atlantic

Drew Gilpin Faust

Historian; President, Harvard University

Frances FitzGerald

Writer; recipient, Pulitzer Prize

Elizabeth Frank

Writer; Joseph E. Harry Professor of Modern Languages and Literature, Bard College; recipient, Pulitzer Prize

Jonathan Franzen

Writer

Ian Frazier

Writer

Mary Gaitskill

Novelist

Catherine Gallagher

Eggers Professor of English Literature, University of California, Berkeley

Sara Garnes

Linguist; Associate Professor of English Emerita, Ohio State University

Michael G. Gartner

Former president, Board of Regents, State of Iowa; language columnist; former president, NBC News; former president, American Society of Newspaper Editors; recipient, Pulitzer Prize

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University

J. Edward Gates

Lexicographer; editor; Professor Emeritus of English, Indiana State University

James Gleick

Author; columnist

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

Writer; MacArthur Fellow

Adam Gopnik

Writer; staff writer, The New Yorker

Peter Gordon

Puzzlemaker; crossword editor

Jonathan Gottschall

Author; Professor of English, Washington and Jefferson College

Philip Gourevitch

Writer; former editor, The Paris Review

Francine du Plessix Gray

Writer

Georgia M. Green

Writer; Professor Emerita of Linguistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Stephen Greenblatt

John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University

Linda Gregerson

Poet; critic; Caroline Walker Bynum Distinguished University Professor of English, University of Michigan

Alma Guillermoprieto

Writer; staff writer, The New Yorker; MacArthur Fellow

Jessica Hagedorn

Novelist; poet

Patricia Hampl

Writer; Regents’ Professor of English, University of Minnesota

Liane Hansen

Radio correspondent

Sam Harris

Author; neuroscientist

Robert Hass

Former US poet laureate; recipient, Pulitzer Prize

Joel Havemann

Author; former correspondent, Los Angeles Times

Marti Hearst

Professor, School of Information, University of California, Berkeley

William Least Heat-Moon

Writer

Mark Helprin

Writer

Oscar Hijuelos

Author; recipient, Pulitzer Prize and Rome Prize

Douglas R. Hofstadter

Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Comparative Literature and Director of the Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition, Indiana University, Bloomington; recipient, Pulitzer Prize

Jenny Holzer

Artist; writer

Gloria Hom

Educator and consultant; former professor of economics, Mission College; former trustee, California State University

Garrett Hongo

Writer; Distinguished Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oregon

Laurence Horn

Author; Professor of Linguistics and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Yale University

Fanny Howe

Writer; Professor Emerita of Writing and American Literature, University of California, San Diego

Sue Hubbell

Science and nature writer

Jennifer James

Cultural anthropologist; writer

Joyce Johnson

Writer; recipient, National Book Critics Circle Award

Erica Jong

Poet; novelist; essayist

Roger Kahn

Author; journalist

Wendy Kaminer

Writer

Alice Kaplan

John M. Musser Professor of French, Yale University

Justin Kaplan

Writer; recipient, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award

Stanley Kauffmann

Film critic, The New Republic

Trudy Kehret-Ward

Writer; Senior Lecturer, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley

Elizabeth T. Kennan

President Emerita, Mount Holyoke College

Tracy Kidder

Writer; recipient, Pulitzer Prize

Jamaica Kincaid

Writer

Florence King

Writer; critic; columnist

Barbara Kingsolver

Writer

Maxine Hong Kingston

Writer; recipient, National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and PEN Center USA West Award for Fiction

Galway Kinnell

Poet; MacArthur Fellow; recipient, Pulitzer Prize

Jeremy K.B. Kinsman

Columnist; former Canadian Ambassador to the European Union

Elizabeth Kolbert

Journalist; author

Ed Koren

Cartoonist, The New Yorker

Maxine Kumin

Writer; former Consultant in Poetry, Library of Congress; recipient, Pulitzer Prize

Robert Kuttner

Coeditor and cofounder, The American Prospect; columnist, The Boston Globe

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot

Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education, Harvard University; MacArthur Fellow

David Leavitt

Writer; Professor of English, University of Florida

Jill Lepore

Professor of History, Harvard University; author

Wendy Lesser

Writer; Editor, The Threepenny Review

Lawrence Lessig

Professor, Harvard Law School

Beth Levin

William H. Bonsall Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Linguistics, Stanford University

Anthony Lewis

Former columnist, The New York Times; recipient, Pulitzer Prize

Michael Lewis

Author

Mark Liberman

Professor of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania

Phillip Lopate

Writer; John Cranford Adams Chair in the Humanities and Professor of English, Hofstra University

Lois Lowry

Author

Heather Mac Donald

Author; John M. Olin Fellow, Manhattan Institute

Claudine B. Malone

Management consultant; former Associate Professor, Harvard Business School

Greil Marcus

Historian; essayist; critic

Suzanne R. Massie

Writer; lecturer on Russian history and culture

Armistead Maupin

Author

Jane Mayer

Author

Alice E. Mayhew

Editorial Director, Simon & Schuster

Terrence McNally

Playwright; recipient, four Tony Awards

John H. McWhorter

Linguist; writer; Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute

Hassan Minor, Jr.

Senior Vice President, Howard University

Lorrie Moore

Writer; Delmore Schwartz Professor in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin—Madison

Lance Morrow

Author; biographer; essayist, Time

Bharati Mukherjee

Writer; recipient, National Book Critics Circle Award; Professor of English, University of California, Berkeley

Alice Munro

Author

Cullen Murphy

Editor at Large, Vanity Fair

Thomas M.T. Niles

President, United States Council for International Business

Marsha Norman

Playwright; recipient, Pulitzer Prize

Susan Orlean

Author; staff writer, The New Yorker

Cynthia Ozick

Novelist; essayist

Suzan-Lori Parks

Writer; MacArthur Fellow; recipient, Pulitzer Prize

Ann Patchett

Author

Margaret Sayers Peden

Translator; Professor Emerita of Spanish, University of Missouri

Ivars Peterson

Director of Publications and Communications, Mathematical Association of America

Robert Pinsky

Poet; translator; former U.S. Poet Laureate; Professor of English, Boston University

Michael Pollan

Author; Professor of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley

Virginia Postrel

Author; columnist, The Wall Street Journal

Alvin F. Poussaint

Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Leah Price

Professor of English, Harvard University

Francine Prose

Writer

Jane Bryant Quinn

Journalist; financial columnist

Claudia Rankine

Poet; playwright; Henry G. Lee Professor of Poetry, Pomona College

Robert Reich

Author; Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley; former US Secretary of Labor

Richard Rhodes

Author; recipient, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize; MacArthur Fellow

Frank Rich

Author; former columnist, The New York Times; essayist, New York magazine

John R. Rickford

J.E. Wallace Sterling Professor in Linguistics and the Humanities and Pritzker University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, Stanford University

Mary Roach

Writer

Richard Rodriguez

Writer

Robert J. Samuelson

Columnist, The Washington Post

John Sayles

Film director; writer; screenwriter; actor

Antonin Scalia

Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court

Lloyd Schwartz

Poet; music critic; Frederick S. Troy Professor of English, University of Massachusetts, Boston; recipient, Pulitzer Prize

David Sedaris

Writer; humorist

Harvey Shapiro

Poet; editor

Will Shortz

Puzzlemaker; crossword editor, The New York Times

Elaine Showalter

Avalon Foundation Professor of the Humanities, Emerita, Princeton University

Leslie Marmon Silko

Author

John Simon

Drama and film critic

Mona Simpson

Novelist; Professor of English, University of California, Los Angeles

David Skinner

Editor, Humanities

Christina Hoff Sommers

Author; resident scholar, American Enterprise Institute

A.E. Stallings

Poet; poetry program director, Athens Centre; MacArthur Fellow

Susan Stamberg

Special correspondent, National Public Radio

Margaret O’Brien Steinfels

Codirector, Center on Religion and Culture, Fordham University; former editor in chief, Commonweal

Shane Templeton

Foundation Professor of Literacy Studies, University of Nevada, Reno

Paul Theroux

Novelist; travel writer

Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

Writer

Peter Tiersma

Professor of Law and Hon. William Matthew Byrne, Jr. Chair, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles

Elizabeth C. Traugott

Professor Emerita of Linguistics and English, Stanford University

Calvin Trillin

Staff writer, The New Yorker

Anne Tyler

Novelist; recipient, Pulitzer Prize

Helen H. Vendler

Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor, Harvard University

Paula Vogel

Eugene O'Neill Professor (Adjunct) and Chair of Playwrighting, Yale School of Drama; recipient, Pulitzer Prize

William T. Vollmann

Author

Eugene Volokh

Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law, University of California, Los Angeles

Barbara Wallraff

Author; columnist, The Atlantic, Slate, King Features

Douglas Turner Ward

Actor; playwright; recipient, Vernon Rice Award and Obie Award

Fay Weldon

Writer; Professor of Creative Writing, Brunel University

John Edgar Wideman

Novelist; Asa Messer Professor and Professor of Africana Studies and English, Brown University; MacArthur Fellow

Tobias Wolff

Writer; Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor of English, Stanford University

Alden S. Wood

Lecturer on Editorial Procedures, Emeritus, Simmons College; columnist on language and English usage

Richard A. Young

Writer; editor; lecturer; publisher; engineer; Executive Director, National Registry of Environmental Professionals

William Zinsser

Writer; editor; educator

We regret that the following members of the Usage Panel, who participated in the program for this edition, have died.

Louis Auchincloss, Sheridan Baker, Letitia Baldrige, Jacques Barzun, Daniel Bell, Kallia H. Bokser, William F. Buckley, Jr., Claire Kehrwald Cook, Robert W. Creamer, William K. Durr, Howard Fast, John Kenneth Galbraith, Mark O. Hatfield, Molly Ivins, Alfred E. Kahn, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Robert Manning, Leonard Michaels, Edwin Newman, Ellen F. Prince, William James Raspberry, Edward W. Rosenheim, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Carlota S. Smith, Theodore C. Sorensen, Stewart L. Udall, David Foster Wallace, Calvert Watkins, Jacqueline Grennan Wexler, Tom Wicker