Lesley Milroy is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. She is the author of numerous books and articles, including Authority in Language (third edition, 1999) and Language and Social Networks (second edition, Blackwell 1987).

Matthew Gordon is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Missouri–Columbia. He is the author of Small-Town Values, Big-City Vowels: A Study of the Northern Cities Shift in Michigan (2001).