Simon Ellis, Spelling Bee Champ

Claudia has been writing ever since she was six years old, when her mother, who was a teacher, gave her a poetry notebook. Her path to becoming a published author is quite a tale in and of itself! While she was working at a publishing company, she was submitting drafts of her stories to the same company. One day, her boss asked her to read one of her own drafts to get a second opinion. She did so, giving some suggestions to the author, and later incorporated those suggestions to herself in what became her published book, At the Back of the Woods. Claudia was born in New York City and raised in New Jersey, earned degrees from Wellesley College, Princeton University, and University of Maryland, and now lives in Boulder Colorado, where she recently retired from being a professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado to write full time.

Rob Shepperson is a popular editorial artist for many newspapers and magazines. He lives in Croton-on-Hudson, New York.