Ed Simon is the Public Humanities Special Faculty in the English Department at Carnegie Mellon University, editor of The Pittsburgh Review of Books, a staff writer for Lit Hub, and an emeritus staff writer at The Millions. He is a frequent contributor at several different sites including The Atlantic, The Paris Review Daily, Aeon, Jacobin, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Killing the Buddha, Salon, The Public Domain Review, Atlas Obscura, JSTOR Daily, and Newsweek. He is also the author of several books, including Devil’s Contract: The History of the Faustian Bargain (2024). He holds a PhD in English from Lehigh University and an MA in literary and cultural studies from Carnegie Mellon University.