Michael J. Ortiz teaches religion and English at The Heights School in Potomac, Maryland, where he has taught for thirty years. He has a bachelor s degree in English from St. Anselm College, and a master s degree in English from Georgetown University.. Ortiz has received three grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, one of which was an independent fellowship. The Massachusetts native is the author of Swan Town: The Secret Journal of Susanna Shakespeare. Ortiz and his wife, Kathleen, have four children. They live in Washington, D.C.