Brenda Knight grew up in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and learned how to appreciate life from her mother, Helen. After a brief career as a high school English teacher, she began working for HarperCollins, and is now a twenty-year publishing veteran. She is also the author of the American Book Award-winning Women of the Beat Generation, Rituals of Life, and Wild Women and Books. She is an avid gardener and seed saver, and volunteers for the American Cancer Society as a counselor for the newly diagnosed. She teaches at the San Francisco Writer’s Conference and leads workshops on “Putting Your Passion on Paper.” The founding editor of Viva Editions, a division of Cleis Press, Brenda lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.