Dr. Camille Bacon-Smith received her Ph.D. in Folklore, with a specialization in popular culture, at the University of Pennsylvania, in the USA. She has taught writing, anthropology, literature, folklore, and popular culture. Her published works include two scholarly books--ENTERPRISING WOMEN and SCIENCE FICTION CULTURE--and five fantasy novels under her own name and a pseudonym. She has also written a variety of articles and short fiction.

Dr. Bacon-Smith is the director of Newfolk, the scholarly community of folklorists, anthropologists, and Americanists who share an inerest in the study of contemporary issues. Newfolk espouses the philosoophy of accessible scholarship disseminated across disciplinary boundaries and to a lay readership.

As director, Bacon-Smith hosts the Newfolk email list, organizes the Newfolk resources website and edits NEW DIRECTIONS IN FOLKLORE, the prestigious peer-reviewed online journal of Newfolk. In 2000, Newfolk established Newfolk@AFS, a formal special interest section in the American Folklore Society.

Camille Bacon-Smith lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she organizes a series of monthly readings by science fiction, fantasy and horror writers.