William H. Gass (1924–2017) was one of Conjunctions’ earliest contributors and served on its contributing editorial board for many years. He is the author of seven works of fiction, including his epic novel The Tunnel (Dalkey Archive Press), and nine books of essays. Elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1983, Gass won awards including the Lannan Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, the American Book Award (The Tunnel), and in 2000 he was the first to be awarded the Pen/Nabokov Award for fiction.