Emily Bunker grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area riding a horse named Hula. After high school she gave her beloved old horse to a good home and joined a Turkish and Balkan folkdance performing group. This decision led to visiting Turkey off and on for twenty-six years.

Emily attended Stanford University, graduating with a BA in anthropology. She has worked in San Jose, California, as a teaching assistant for disabled children; in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, as a dance teacher and choreographer; and all over Cape Cod as a math, writing, and SAT prep tutor. She now writes, edits, and volunteers at a neighborhood elementary school. She and Tim Joyce (the illustrator of her books) own a Cape Cod business called FAMILY LORE: Weaving your Family Stories into a Priceless Book.

Emily is the author of Secret Rules of the SAT Game: A Player’s Guide, an innovative SAT prep book, Nuri’s Donkey: Untold Stories & Unwritten Rules of a Village in Turkey, a book about the village to which she once belonged, and Jet Black Cat, a story for children about her lovable but slightly deranged cats from Dubai. She has written or edited numerous collections of family lore.

She has two beautiful and talented half-Turkish daughters. Michelle works in the health care business in New York City, and occasionally directs off-off Broadway shows. Eliza is a university student outside Boston studying holistic psychology and expressive arts therapy.

Emily is sitting down in this picture at the Cliffs of Moher, Ireland, in order not to fall over the edge.

Tim Joyce (illustrations for Nuri’s Donkey, Secret Rules of the SAT Game, and Learning to Whistle) interweaves teaching high school English with the fine arts of painting, poetry, and music. Much of his childhood was spent doodling in the margins of his notebook instead of listening to the teacher. He grew up to illustrate several books, and has published four volumes of poetry. He and Emily own the Cape Cod business FAMILY LORE: Weaving your Family Stories into a Priceless Book.

Mary Franklin Bunker (author of Learning to Whistle) spent her childhood in Dedham, Massachusetts, and graduated from Milton Academy. Not only a poet, she is also an artist, pianist, and former competitive tennis player. This mother of four, grandmother of four, and great-grandmother of one lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with her daughter Kathy. Her poetry is edited by her daughter Emily.

Dr. Fikri Kuchuk (consulting and photography for Nuri’s Donkey) is a poet, photographer, and petroleum engineer. He was raised in the small Turkish village where Nuri’s Donkey takes place. He lives in Paris, France.