Ann A. Philips is the author of A Language the Land is Inventing (WordTech Editions, 2017) and the middle-grade novel If You Believe in Mermaids, Don’t Tell (Dog Ear, 2007). She earned an MA in Russian Literature from Harvard University and an MS in Counseling from the University of Southern Maine, and has taught writing and literature, and worked as a psychotherapist and a guide at the National Zoo Reptile House. Raised in Columbia, MO, she currently lives in historic Washington Grove, MD.