Kristen McDermott is a Professor of English Literature at Central Michigan University, specializing in Early Modern Drama. Her most recent book, William Shakespeare: His Life & Times, published by Templar/Candlewick and co-authored with Ari Berk, won the School Library Association's 2011 Children's Choice Information Book Award. Her edition of Jacobean court entertainments, Masques of Difference: Power, Race and Gender in the Masques of Ben Jonson, (Manchester University Press, 2007) makes use of an interdisciplinary background in music, drama and literature. Her scholarly articles have appeared in Pedagogy, Renaissance Papers, Shakespeare Magazine, Early Theatre, and Language Arts Journal of Michigan, and she has been the co-editor of the "Folkroots" column for Realms of Fantasy Magazine, which has also published several of her articles on Shakespeare and folk traditions for a general readership. She is currently a regular book reviewer and features writer for Historical Novels Review.