Laurel Snyder is the author of six novels for children, two books of poems, and the editor of an anthology of nonfiction, Half/Life- Jewish tales from Interfaith Homes. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a former Michener-Engle Fellow, Laurel has published work in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the Utne Reader, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Revealer, Salon, The Iowa Review, American Letters and Commentary, and elsewhere. She is an occasional commentator for NPR's ""All Things Considered,"" and she teaches in the MFAC program at Hamline University, and also in the creative writing department at Emory University. A Baltimore native, Laurel now lives in Atlanta (in Ormewood Park), with her family. Which is really the best part.