Elizabeth Gilchrist was born in Santa Barbara, California. Having lived most of her life there, she now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The author of three books of fiction –Your Cheatin’ Heart (Macmillan), Second Chances (Dell), and Rich People in Santa Barbara: Two Novellas (Rare Bird Books), she has a BA in history from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and an MFA in fiction from the School of the Arts at Columbia University. She has taught creative writing at the University of Texas at El Paso, the College of Creative Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Florida International University in Miami, where she was a Writer-in-Residence, and the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center in New York City. She worked closely with the novelist Kent Anderson on Green Sun, the third volume of the Hanson trilogy.