Deborah Wiles was born in Alabama and grew up in an Air Force household, travelling about a lot yet putting down deep roots in her extended family's Mississippi soil. She still travels down South from Frederick, Maryland, where she lives with her family and works as a freelance writer, where she has lived for many years. She also runs writing and oral history workshops for kids, emphasizing that all history is really biography and that everyone's story matters. Her debut novel is Freedom Summer.