<p>RAFAEL ALVAREZ was born in Baltimore in 1958 and educated at Catholic schools. He received an English degree from Loyola College in Baltimore in 1981.</p> <p>His books include Orlo and Leini, a collection of short fiction, and Storyteller, an anthology of his two decades of feature reporting for the Baltimore Sun.</p> <p>In 2009, Alvarez published an essay on the expansive nature of storytelling - as evidenced in his fiction and THE WIRE - in Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives, released by the MIT Press of Cambridge, Massachusetts.</p> <p>DAVID SIMON's Homicide: A Year in the Killing Streets won the Edgar and Anthony Awards and became the basis for the award-winning NBC drama. Simon's second book, The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighbourhood, co-authored with Ed Burns, was made into an Emmy-winning HBO miniseries. Simon was an executive writer and producer for HBO's Peabody Award-winning series THE WIRE. He lives in Baltimore.</p> <p>Other contributors: Victor Paul Alvarez, Michael A. Fletcher, Greg Garland, Nick Hornby, Joy Lusco Kecken, Laura Lippman, Ann DeLordo, George Pelecanos, Deborah Rudacille, Tom Waldron, Anthony Walton and William F. Zorzi.</p>