BRIAN NELSON has over eighteen years of experience in Latin America and has lived in Costa Rica, Argentina, Mexico, and Venezuela. His work on the region has appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Christian Science Monitor, The Southern Humanities Review and was the subject of a PEW Case Study for Georgetown University. In 2002, after receiving his MFA from the University of Arizona, Mr. Nelson was awarded a Fulbright grant to writeThe Silence and the Scorpion. Over a seventeen-month period and building on his many connections in Venezuela (some dating back to 1988 when he attended high school there), Mr. Nelson was given open access to many high-level officials in the Chávez regime and the opposition. In addition to his MFA, Mr. Nelson holds degrees in International Studies and Economics. He lives in Baltimore and teaches for Johns Hopkins University.