A former newspaper reporter and magazine staff writer, Rick Ramseyer has been researching and writing the story of Martha Graber for the past decade. His interest in her remarkable citizenship quest extends well beyond documenting an important aspect of U.S. history: Martha was his maternal grandmother. Rick has a bachelor's degree in communication from Bluffton University and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. In 2018 and 2019, he was awarded writing residencies at the Hewnoaks Artist Residency, where Girl Without a Country took shape.