Melissa L. Sevigny grew up on a four-acre plot of Sonoran desert on the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona. She earned a dual degree in environmental science and creative writing from the University of Arizona and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and Environment from Iowa State University. She has worked as a science communicator in the fields of western water policy, sustainable agriculture, and planetary science, and was a member of NASA’s Phoenix Mars Scout Mission during its ground operations on Mars. She currently writes science stories for KNAU (Arizona Public Radio) and lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.