Carmela Caruso is a freelance reporter based in Asheville, North Carolina, United States of America with experience covering human rights, press freedom, and local news. She is a regular contributor for Voice of America and the Mountain Xpress.

Constance E. Richards is a freelance writer, editor, and author. She has written and reported for Time Magazine, Time for Kids, LIFE, Fortune, the New York Times, People, Conde Nast Traveler, Reuters, FoxNews.com, Southern Living, Institutional Investor Magazine, American Archaeology, and other Read morepublications. 

Constance spent close to seven years in Russia where she was Moscow bureau chief/correspondent for LIFE Magazine, and a freelance correspondent and researcher for Time. She began her journalism career in Russia as a production assistant and interpreter for ABC News in Moscow, and is fluent in Russian and German, with a reading comprehension of French.

Book credits include "Bloom's Literary Places: St. Petersburg" (Chelsea), (co-authored with Bradley Wordsworth); "Insiders' Guide to North Carolina's Mountains" (Globe Pequot), (co-authored with Kenneth L. Richards); "Artful Asheville - Along the Urban Trail;" "Creative Giftwraps" (Lark Books); "Making Books and Journals" (Lark Books); and "North Carolina Curiosities" 4th Edition, (Globe Pequot).