Denise Gosliner Orenstein has taught at American University in Washington, DC, as well as in bush villages throughout the state of Alaska. She has also cooked for an Alaskan village prison, worked as a PEN prison writing mentor, and taught literature classes and assisted in a canine therapy program for inmates. Most recently, as head of a school for children with learning differences, she introduced a curriculum based on two rescued Shetland ponies. Denise is the mother of two daughters and lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.