"I earned my M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the New School in New York City, where I got to study under well-known novelists and conduct published interviews with Pulitzer Prize winners. Before that I got my bachelor's degree in English Literature with a writing concentration. In the past, I've tutored Bosnian and Burmese adult refugees with World Relief, middle school students, and even my downstairs neighbor in New York, who wrote what I believe to be the greatest screenplay ever produced by a fifth grader. I also worked for a few years as a copywriter and editor, and at one point I was in the training program at the Second City in Chicago, where I wrote comedy sketches and performed on the stage.

I'm not telling you all this to brag, but because I want you to love English as much as I do, and to show you that reading and writing are fun, and they can serve you in ways you didn't expect, whether you're six years old or sixty. I'll help you get through the parts that aren't fun. And if you're reading this as a six-year-old, you probably don't need me." less...