Susan Barringer Wells is an eighth-generation North Carolinian whose fifth great-grandfather, John Wells, is one of 50 signers of The Tryon Resolves, a proclamation of patriots protesting British atrocities in 1775. Wells earned a BA in English with a minor in History at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro and afterward studied Commercial Art and Ad Design. After teaching adults and children for a while and working as an editor of children's educational materials, she attended the graduate School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A Game Called Salisbury is the 2009 recipient of North Carolina Society of Historians' Willie Parker Peace History Book Award. It is cited in Equal Justice Initiative's report on "Lynching in America."