Mary Beth Magin was born in Seoul and adopted and raised in upstate New York. She earned a degree in Economics with a focus on Asian Studies from the University of Pittsburgh in 2004, all the while maintaining a covert affection for critical theory, linguistics, film studies, and feminist art. She currently resides in Memphis, Tennessee with her husband and two cats. Her favorite writers include John Ashbery, Alice Notley, Issa, George Herriman, and Gina Berriault. She is the co-author of Especially the Deer, which was first published in 2003 and was re-released in paperback in 2011.