Cynthia Barnett is a long-time journalist who has reported on freshwater issues from the Suwannee River to Singapore. Her awards include a national Sigma Delta Chi prize for investigative magazine reporting and eight Green Eyeshades, which recognize outstanding journalism in the Southeast. The author of Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S., she earned a master's degree in environmental history at the University of Florida and was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan. She lives with her family in Gainesville, Florida.