Alexander Trocchi (1925-1984) was a Scottish novelist whose numerous works include
Cain's Book. He resided mainly in Paris and New York throughout his life. He was an editor of the literary journal
Merlin, which published works by Eug ne Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Jean-Paul Sartre, and others.
David L. Ulin is the author, most recently, of the novel Ear to the Ground. His other books include Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles, a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, and The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time. A 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, he spent ten years as book editor and book critic of the Los Angeles Times.