The most succinct way to describe Ethan Gilsdorf is as a nerd who writes a lot. He is a journalist, critic, essayist, memoirist, poet, and teacher. A lifelong lover of Dungeons & Dragons, Gilsdorf began his writing career as a travel writer out of Paris. He returned to the United States five years later, and since then has written for an exhaustive list of magazines and newspapers, from the New York Times Book Review and the Boston Globe to Reykjavik Grapevine Magazine and Emirates Inflight Magazine. He has written many features, essays and op-eds, but is notably a movie critic for the Globe and Art New England and a book reviewer for the Globe and the New York Times. His book, Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and other Dwellers Of Imaginary Realms, was published in 2010. He is also a speaker and gave a TEDx Talk about why Dungeons & Dragons is good for you. Gilsdorf is the cofounder of GrubStreet’s Young Adult Writers Program (YAWP) and serves on GrubStreet's board.