Miriam Camitta is a writer, teacher, and folklorist. She earned her MFA in Fiction from the Bennington Writing Seminars and holds a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife, a M.S. in Education, and a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania, where she taught for thirty-one years. She currently teaches literature and creative writing at Temple University. Her documentary, Crosstown, was nominated for best independent documentary at the 2001 Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema and was broadcast on WYBE-TV. Miriam Camitta writes short fiction, poetry, and memoir and is working on a novel about gentrification and highway planning.