Miri­am Katin was born in Hun­gary dur­ing World War II. She lat­er immi­grat­ed to Israel and then the Unit­ed States, where she worked in back­ground design for ani­ma­tion stu­dios such as MTV and Dis­ney. She is the author of the award-win­ning mem­oirs We Are On Our Own and Let­ting It Go. She cur­rent­ly lives in Wash­ing­ton Heights with her hus­band and a giant Ficus ben­jam­i­na tree.