Verlyn Flieger is professor emerita of English at the University of Maryland where she teaches courses on Tolkien, medieval and modern literature, and comparative mythology. She has written three books on Tolkien: Splintered Light, A Question of Time, and Interrupted Music (all published by The Kent State University Press). She has also edited a critical edition of Tolkien's novella Smith of Wootton Major, and an expanded edition with notes and commentary of Tolkien's most influential theoretical essay, "On Fairy-Stories."