Mark Victor Hansen is an American inspirational and motivational speaker, trainer and author. He is best known as the founder and co-creator of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" book series. Mark Victor Hansen was born to Danish immigrants, Una and Paul Hansen. He grew up in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated from Southern Illinois University in 1970 with a B.A. in speech communications. Along with business partner, Jack Canfield , Hansen is best known for creating what Time magazine called “the publishing phenomenon of the decade”. Chicken Soup for the Soul books are one of the most successful publishing franchises in the world today, with more than 500 million books sold internationally and more than 100 licensed products. The name “Chicken Soup” was chosen because of the use of chicken soup as a home remedy for the sick. The first Chicken Soup book, published by Health Communications, Inc., sold more than 2 million copies. There are now over 500 million copies in print and in 54 languages worldwide. In 2005 he co-wrote, along with Robert Allen, the book "Cracking the Millionaire Code" in which he highlights several self-made millionaires such as Bob Circosta, Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Alexander Graham Bell, Oprah Winfrey, and others, using them as examples of how to build wealth.

Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa was born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York City. She is a product of the Puerto Rican communities on the island and in the South Bronx. She attended the New York City public school system and received her academic degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo and Queens College-City University of New York. As a child she was sent to live with her grandparents in Puerto Rico where she was introduced to the culture of rural Puerto Rico, including the storytelling that came naturally to the women in her family, especially the older women. Much of her work is based on her experiences during this time. Dahlma taught creative writing and language and literature in the New York City public school system before becoming a young-adult librarian. She has also taught creative writing to teenagers, adults, and senior citizens throughout New York while honing her own skills as a fiction writer and memoirist. The 2009 hardcover edition of Daughters of the Stone was listed as a 2010 Finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize. In February, 2019 Dahlma self-published the paperback edition of Daughters of the Stone which won the 16th Annual National Indie Excellence® Awards for Multicultural Fiction in 2020. In 2021, she was awarded the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship for Fiction. Dahlma's short stories appear in several anthologies, including: Bronx Memoir Project, Latina Authors and Their Muses, Chicken Soup for the Latino Soul, Breaking Ground: Anthology of Puerto Rican Women Writers in New York 1980-2012, and Growing Up Girl. Dahlma's work also appears in various literary magazines such as the Afro-Hispanic Review and Kweli Journal. English and Spanish language editions of Dahlma's second novel, A Woman of Endurance, are scheduled to be published in March 2022 by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins. Since her retirement, Dahlma continues to dedicate herself to her writing, speaking engagements, panels, and workshops. She resides in the Bronx with her husband, photographer Jonathan Lessuck.