Amanda Cushman lives on the East Coast, where she works as an editor. She has a B.A. in Linguistics from Boston University and an M.A. in Writing and Publishing from Emerson College. In her spare time she enjoys such hobbies as oil painting, baking and drinking sophisticated beers. In the spring of 2005 she lived in Niamey, Niger, where she studied Nigerien culture, art, and history along with the Hausa and Zarma languages.