I am a senior writer at The New York Times originally trained as a linguist, and I've been lucky enough to be able to combine my vocation with my avocation by writing narrative nonfiction books about language.My new book, "The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code," the story of the race to decipher the mysterious Bronze Age script known as Linear B, will be published on May 14, 2013, by Ecco Press/HaperCollins. It is the real-life tale of obsession, a lost civilization, personal tragedy and the step-by-step detective work that goes into unraveling an unknown script from the ancient past.My previous book is "Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind" (Simon & Schuster, 2007).I hold bachelor's and master's degrees in linguistics from Stony Brook University, and a master's from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. I live in Manhattan with my husband, the writer and critic George Robinson.
