Melissa Hart is contributing editor for The Writer Magazine and creative writing teacher for Southern New Hampshire University's MFA program. She holds a BA in literature from U.C. Santa Barbara's College of Creative Studies and an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College in Vermont. She's the author of the award-winning middle-grade novel Avenging the Owl and two memoirs--Wild Within: How Rescuing Owls Inspired a Family and Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood. She's based in Eugene, Oregon, and travels frequently around the U.S. with her husband and 12-year-old daughter. www.melissahart.com.