Emma Gates

Award-winning writer Emma Gates was born in New York and spent her childhood in England. She earned a BA in Spanish/Latin American Studies from Indiana University Bloomington, and an MBA with concentration in Arabic/Middle Eastern Studies from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona. She worked for three years in Mexico and five in Saudi Arabia. She's an international trade and telecoms specialist currently living near Chicago with her family and two inscrutable cats.

"I try to write what I want to read -- novels that are dense, 'chewy', full of ideas, which transport me to different places while taking me deep into the hearts of characters whose lives immediately engage and move me profoundly. Because I've lived many years outside the States, I'm interested in how Americans interact with people from other countries, whether here or there."