Mackenzie Gentz is a linguist and writer. Language has always been a deep-seated interest for Mackenzie, as she grew up in a Norwegian-Korean family—in English-Spanish-speaking Tucson, Arizona. Her most joyful moment was when she completed her first circumnavigation, during which she traveled eastward to pass all world meridians on a single trip. She graduated summa cum laude from Northwestern University with a BM in oboe performance and an honors BA in linguistics and German. Thereafter she moved to Munich, Germany, where she completed a MA in Deutsch als Fremdsprache (German Applied Linguistics) in conjunction with the Institut für Phonetik und Sprachverarbeitung (IPS) at the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität. Her master’s thesis work evaluated limitations to L2 phonetic acquisition in preparation for her doctoral work on language attrition in phonetic settings. In her free time, Mackenzie reads a book a week, prepares podcasts for her show The Book Album, and travels regularly.