Word Matters Creators & Guests

Peter Sokolowski is a lexicographer. Currently, he is an editor-at-large for Merriam-Webster and an adjunct professor at Amherst College.Sokolowski is also a freelance musician and has often appeared as a guest host on New England Public Radio's "Jazz Beat."Sokolowski received his M.A. in French from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Neil Serven is a lexicographer and writer. Currently, he is a freelance lexicographer and a co-owner of a used bookstore.Previously, Serven was an associate editor at Merriam-Webster.Serven's short fiction and essays have appeared in Greensboro Review, Washington Square, Catapult, The Lit Hub, The Smart Set, Prairie Schooner online, and Electric Literature.Serven received his B.A. in English from Merrimack College.

Johanna Mayer is the host of Science Diction from Science Friday, a series that digs into the scientific origin stories behind our words and language. Before joining Science Friday, she worked as a freelance writer and taught English in Japanese public schools for two years on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program.

Benjamin Zimmer is a linguist, lexicographer, and language commentator. He is currently a language columnist for The Wall Street Journal and contributing editor for The Atlantic.Formerly, Zimmer was a language columnist for The Boston Globe and The New York Times Magazine, and editor of American dictionaries at Oxford University Press. He has also been an executive editor of Vocabulary.com and VisualThesaurus.com. He has taught at UCLA, Kenyon College, and Rutgers University.Zimmer write "From A to Zimmer," a weekly lexicography column on the OUP blog. His work has also appeared on Slate, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Sunday Review, and The Atlantic.Zimmer received his B.A. in linguistics from Yale University, and went on to study linguistic anthropology at the University of Chicago.