A KU alumnus (fine arts; philosophy minor), R. Jay Magill Jr. is a writer and illustrator whose work has appeared in American Prospect, American Interest, Atlantic Monthly, The Believer, Foreign Policy, International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Print, among other periodicals and books. A former Harvard Teaching Fellow and Executive Editor of DoubleTake, he holds a PhD in American Studies from the University of Hamburg in Germany. Magill lives in Hamburg and Berlin, where he writes for Spiegel Online and The American Academy.