About the Author

Arlene MacLeod was born in Massachusetts and grew up in New England and upstate New York. She earned her undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College, where she studied government and history, and she holds a Ph.D from Yale University in Political Science. She taught comparative politics and political theory at Bates College, where her courses combined her interests in literature, politics, and imagination. She lives with her husband near the coast in Maine, where she enjoys long walks, swimming in the ocean, and painting. She has always loved to read, especially books that transport the reader to a different time and place. She is the author of two novels, A Necessary Garden and Far Other Worlds, and with her son Morgan MacLeod, of Ruins, a collection of short stories and photo essays.