Donna Freitas is an author of books for both teens and adults. Her nonfiction books for adults include, most recently, "Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance and Religion on America s College Campuses "(Oxford), based on a national study about the influence of sexuality and romantic relationships on the spiritual identities of America s college students. She is also a devoted fan of the celebrated British children s author Philip Pullman, and her book about the religious and ethical dimensions of his award-winning trilogy "Killing the Imposter God: Philip Pullman s Spiritual Imagination in His Dark Materials" (Jossey-Bass/Wiley) hit the bookshelves in the middle of a major, national controversy about the release of the trilogy s first movie installment.

Much of her writing, teaching, and lecturing centers around struggles of belonging and alienation with regard to faith, particularly among young adults and especially with regard to young women. She loves to ask Big Questions (Why "are" we here anyway?) and delights in discovering the many possible forums in which to dabble with the stuff of faith, religion, spirituality, and gender.

A regular contributor to "The Washington Post/Newsweek" s online panel On Faith, the religion webzine "Beliefnet", and "Publishers Weekly", she has also written for "The Wall Street Journal", "The Washington Post", "Christian Century", and "School Library Journal", and she has appeared as a commentator on NPR s "All Things Considered". Her books also include "Becoming a Goddess of Inner Poise: Spirituality for the Bridget Jones in All of Us" and "Save the Date: A Spirituality of Dating, Love, Dinner & the Divine".

Born in Rhode Island, Donna received her B.A. in philosophy and Spanish from Georgetown University and her Ph.D. in religion from Catholic University. She has been a professor at Boston University and at Hofstra in New York. She is currently splitting her time between Barcelona and New York and writing full time. Donna describes herself as an ardent feminist, a Catholic despite it all, an intense intellectual, and a fashion devotee all rolled into one.

Jaselyn Blanchard attended New York University s Steinhardt School in Vocal Performance (Music Theatre). While at NYU, she performed in numerous Steinhardt and NYU productions, including "110 in the Shade", "Language of Angels", and "On My Way: A Cabaret". She continued her education at Brown University/Trinity Rep Consortium, where she recently completed her Masters in Fine Arts Acting. While at Brown, she has appeared in numerous Brown/Trinity Rep productions and was featured as Nimue in Trinity Repertory Company s production of "Camelot".