Nancy Farmer celebrates her birthday on July 9th. She grew up in a hotel on the border of Arizona and New Mexico, serving as the desk clerk from the age of nine. There were weird and wonderful guests staying at that hotel, which gave her a great deal of background for the writing she would do later in life. She graduated from Reed College in Oregon and served in the Peace Corps in India for two years. After returning to the US, she studied at the University of California in Berkeley and then traveled to Mozambique, where she took a job in a lab. "One of my chores was to visit remote villages, to be sure their water supplies were safe. I saw a lot of things that were completely mysterious. African culture is extremely complicated, and I don't consider myself an expert even after twenty years." From there she traveled to Zimbabwe, where she worked for three years. There she met her husband, Harold Farmer, who was a University professor. They have one son, Daniel, and currently live in California. She is a three-time Newbery Honor winner for House of the Scorpion, The Ear, The Eye and the Arm and A Girl Named Disaster. The latter book was also a finalist for the National Book Award. House of the Scorpion won the 2002 National Book Award as well as being named a Michael Printz Honor Book. Her newest book is The Land of the Silver Apples, a sequel to The Sea Trolls.

—Vicki Palmquist