Libba Moore Gray has been an actress, a dancer, and for twenty years a teacher of high school English and drama. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in a number of literary magazines, but "Miss Tizzy" is her first writing for children.Ms. Gray's four children include a businessman, a ballerina, a teacher, and a professional clown. With her husband, Robert, she makes her home in Knoxville, Tennessee. Lisa Cohen is a self-taught artist who was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She moved to the United States in the early 1980s, eager to embrace freedom of expression. She paints and lives in New Orleans with her family.