Meryle Secrest is an award winning biographer and winner of the 2006 National Humanities Medal. Her critically acclaimed works include biographies on Romaine Brooks, Frank Lloyd Wright, Salvador Dali, Bernard Berenson, Stephen Sondheim, and most recently, Amedeo Modigliani. As a feature writer for The Washington Post for many years, she wrote profiles of prominent individuals including Leonard Bernstein, Anaïs Nin, and Marc Chagall. From 2002 to 2004 she taught creative writing at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. Secrest lectures widely and has appeared on numerous television and radio programs in connection with her biographies, including NPR's "All Things Considered" and TODAY. She was born and educated in Bath, England, and now lives in Washington, D.C.