Tracy Barrett is the author of numerous books and magazine articles for young readers. She was born in 1955 in Cleveland, Ohio, and grew up mostly in New York State. Barrett holds a Bachelor's Degree with Honors in Classics-Archaeology from Brown University and an MA and PhD in Medieval Italian Literature from the University of California, Berkeley. Her scholarly interests in the ancient and medieval worlds which overlap in her fiction and nonfiction works.   Barrett has taught courses on writing for children and on children's literature at various institutions and frequently makes presentations to groups of students, librarians, teachers, and others. She teaches Italian, Women's Studies, English, and Humanities at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.