Jo-Ann Mapson (1952-) was born in So. California, now lives just outside Santa Fe, NM. Author of 12 novels, winner of the ALA RUSA award for Solomon's Oak, contemporary women's fiction, several Indie Bound selections, and anthologies. She teaches fiction in the MFA in Writing Program at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Her former students include Heather Lende, Judith Ryan Hendricks, and Earlene Fowler. Her papers are being collected in Boston University's Twentieth Century Jo-Ann Mapson's collection. She is married and has a grown son, several rescue Italian greyhounds, and is at work on a new novel. Her website is joannmapson.com.