Laura Card was a professor of English at BYU when this was written. She earned a BA in English literature and an MA in creative writing from Brigham Young University and a PhD in rhetoric and composition from the University of Utah. In 1995 she won second place in the Utah Arts Council writing contest, and in 2002 she won the honor of Outstanding Student Paper from the American Society for the History of Rhetoric. Laura is the recipient of various grants and scholarships and has published several short stories and articles.