Susan Straight was born in Riverside and still lives there with her family. She has published seven novels and one middle-grade reader. Highwire Moon was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2001; A Million Nightingales was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2006. Her short stories have appeared in Zoetrope, the Ontario Review, the Oxford American, the Sun, Black Clock and many others. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Family Circle, Salon, The Los Angeles Times, Harpers, the Nation and elsewhere. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to work on Highwire Moon, and a Lannan Prize while working on Take One Candle Light a Room.