A Land Between Worlds: The Shifting Poetry of the Great American Landscape Hardcover -

Thinker and artist John Mack shares the poetry of nature as a counterpoint toward a world
that is every day becoming all the more dependent on digital devices and algorithmic
feeds. In 2021 Mack founded Life Calling Initiative, a not-for-profit aimed at helping society
to live fulfilled lives in the digital age while retaining our humanity and personal autonomy.
This is achieved through a diverse set of tools and activities, including, but not limited to,
awareness campaigns, education, art, lectures, and programming. Among the initiatives is
A Species Between Worlds: Our Nature, Our Screens, an interactive photography
exhibition that questions how a balance between our connection to nature and today's
growing device-dependence might be attained.

In his early career as a photographer, Mack sought "real moments" of the human heart. His first publication, Xibalb Lost Dreams of the Mexican Rainforest (2005), exhibited in
Mexico City, tells the story of the risk to the human imagination and to sacred culture in the
wake of an environment's exploitation and destruction. A later publication, Revealing
Mexico (2010), exhibited in Rockefeller Center's Channel Gardens, brought the soft poetry
of Mexico's land and people into the heart of New York City's bustling streets. Mack later
published Marseille: At Their Home (2018), a collection of black and white street
photography in the port city of Marseille, France.

Mack has appeared on Charlie Rose, The Martha Stewart Show, and The Today Show.
He received third prize in the category of photography at the 25th Annual New York Book
Show for Revealing Mexico. Mack's photography is represented by the Robert Mann
Gallery in New York City.

Dr. Richard Garriott de Cayeux is an icon in the computer gaming field, having created games for more than 40 years. He is the father of "Massively Multiplayer Online Games" and also credited with the creation of the gaming terms "Avatar" and "Shard" (for divisions of servers). He and his games, of which the best known is the Ultima Series, have been inducted into the computer gaming hall of fame. He received the industry lifetime achievement award, been inducted into two industry hall of fames and has been named a "Living Game God." He has built three leading gaming companies: Origin Systems/Electronic Arts, Destination Games/NCsoft and most recently Portalarium, which publishes his most recent work "Shroud of the Avatar".

Richard is also a principle shaper of commercial human spaceflight. He co-founded Zero G Corp, The X Prize Foundation and Space Adventures which remains the first company to arrange space flights for private citizens. He is the sixth private astronaut to have lived aboard the International Space Station. As the son of a NASA astronaut, he became the first second-generation astronaut. He remains a key leader in civilian and commercial space. Richard also served on the NASA Advisory Council. From his space activities, he has been inducted into the Environmental Hall of Fame and the Ham Radio Hall of Fame. He also received the 2009 National Space Society's Space Explorer Pioneer Award, the Aerospace Medical Association's 2009 SNFS Lovelace Award, and the 2009 Arthur C Clarke Award for Individual Achievement.

As an explorer, Richard has traveled around the globe, including through the jungles of Africa, the Amazon, the North and South Poles, the deep seas (Titanic, hydrothermal vents and deep wrecks), as well as orbiting the earth aboard the International Space Station. Through all these explorations, Richard has worked to advance scientific understanding and environmental responsibility.

Although he dropped out of the University of Texas to start his first gaming company, he has since received an honorary doctorate degree from Queen Mary University. Richard's non-profit and philanthropic works include serving on the boards of The Explorers Club, The X Prize Foundation and The Challenger Center for Science Education. Richard is married to Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux and they have two children--a daughter Kinga and son Ronin.