Gail E. Haley is a prolific author and illustrator. Her time living in the Caribbean inspired her book A Story, a Story, and she traced the folklore she heard there to their African origins, which she studied extensively before capturing with woodcuts that she cut and printed herself. She lives and works in New York with her family, surrounded by a large collection of early children's books, toys, games, and dolls going back to the seventeenth century.