The New Yorker College Tour: University of Iowa, Iowa City: Everyone's a Critic

Nancy Franklin joined the staff ofThe New Yorker in 1978 as a typist, and was subsequently a fact checker and a nonfiction editor. Since 1989, she has contributed Talk of the Town pieces, essays, Profiles, and humor pieces to the magazine. From 1994 to 2002, she was a theater critic; currently, she writes the On Television column.

Sasha Frere-Jones is the pop-music critic for The New Yorker. From 1991 to 2003, he was a member of the band Ui, whose albums include Answers, Lifelike, and Sidelong. In 1998, he released Standing Upright on a Curve, a solo guitar album. He is currently finishing an album of loud rock songs with his band, the Sands.

Alex Ross has been writing for The New Yorker since 1993 and became the magazine's music critic in 1996. He covers classical music and events and trends in music at large. His recent articles include a Profile of the Icelandic singer Bjork and an Onward and Upward with the Arts on Doctor Atomic, the new opera by John Adams and Peter Sellars, based on the Manhattan Project. He is completing his first book, a cultural history of twentieth-century music.

Don McLeese is an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Iowa. He is the former pop-music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and the Austin American-Statesman, and his work has appeared in many music and general-interest magazines. He is a senior editor of No Depressions. His book Kick Out the Jams was recently published as part of Continuum's 33 and 1/3 series.