Gayle Brandeis is the author of Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write (HarperSanFrancisco) , Dictionary Poems (Pudding House Publications), The Book of Dead Birds: A Novel (HarperCollins), which won Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize for Fiction in Support of a Literature of Social Change, and Self Storage (Ballantine), a Target Breakout Book. Her first YA novel, My Life with the Lincolns was published by Henry Holt in March, 2010 and her next novel for adults, Delta Girls, will be published byBallantine, June, 2010. Her poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies (such as Salon.com, The Nation, and The Mississippi Review) and have received several awards, including the QPB/Story Magazine Short Story Award, a Barbara Mandigo Kelley Peace Poetry Award, and a grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. Her essay on the meaning of liberty was one of three included in the Statue of Liberty’s Centennial time capsule in 1986. In 2004, the Writer Magazine honored Gayle with a Writer Who Makes a Difference Award. Gayle holds a BA in “Poetry and Movement: Arts of Expression, Meditation and Healing” from the University of Redlands, and an MFA in Creative Writing/Fiction from Antioch University. Currently on the faculty of the MFA program at Antioch University, Gayle has taught at universities, libraries, community centers and writing conferences around the country, and was Writer in Residence for the Mission Inn Foundation's Family Voices Project for several years. She is also on the national staff of the women's peace organization CODEPINK and is a founding member of the  Women Creating Peace Collective. Gayle currently lives in Riverside, CA and has one kid in college, one kid in high school, and one new baby. You can find her at www.gaylebrandeis.com.