Rafael de Grenade is the author of Stilwater: Finding Wild Mercy in the Outback. She grew up in the foothills of the Santa Maria Mountains in northern Arizona and began working for the Cross U Ranch at age thirteen—riding, branding, showing horses, and gathering cows. Since then, she has traveled to many countries as a land steward and scientist, and her writing has been published widely in literary and scientific journals. She divides her time between the southwestern United States and Chile.