Stephanie Elizondo Griest has mingled with the Russian Mafiya, polished Chinese propaganda, and belly danced with Cuban rumba queens. These adventures are the subject of her award-winning first book: Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana (Villard/Random House, 2004). Atria/Simon & Schuster will publish her memoirs from Mexico in 2008. She has also written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Latina Magazine, and numerous Travelers' Tales anthologies. An avid traveler, she has explored 25 countries and once spent a year driving 45,000 miles across the United States, documenting its history for a website for kids called The Odyssey. She has been a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University and is currently a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute and a Board Member of the National Coalition Against Censorship. Visit her website at www.aroundthebloc.com.