Barbara Reimensnyder Duncan received her Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania in 1982 and has lived in the southern Appalachians since 1983. She has written and edited award-winning books about Cherokee history and culture, including Living Stories of the Cherokee (editor and collector), Cherokee Heritage Trails Guidebook (with co-author Brett Riggs), Origin of the Milky Way (editor and collector) and Culture, Crisis, and Conflict (with co-editor Anne Rogers.) The North Carolina Folklore Society awarded her the Brown Hudson Award for contributions to North Carolina folklore studies. Duncan is a published poet and songwriter, mother and grandmother. She lives in western North Carolina.