Book Description Literary short stories. About the Author Robert Schirmer’s short-story collection Living with Strangers won the Bobst Award for Emerging Writers and was published by NYU Press. He’s been the recipient of an O. Henry Award and a Pushcart Prize， as well as fellowships from the Chesterfield Film Company’s Writer’s Film Project and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Recently he completed a novel and a second collection of stories. Michelle Richmond is the author of the novel Dream of the Blue Room (2003)， and The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress (2001)， a collection which won the AWP Award for Short Fiction. A native of Alabama and a former James Michener Fellow， she lives in Northern California and teaches in the MFA program in writing at the University of San Francisco. Her stories and essays have appeared in a number of literary journals and anthologies. Robert Olen Butler has published ten novels， most recently Fair Warning (2002) and Mr. Spaceman (2000)， and two volumes of short stories， one of which， A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain， won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His new book of stories， Had a Good Time， based on his collection of antique picture postcards， will be published in August 2004. A recipient of both a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts grant， he also won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters， and a National Magazine Award for Fiction. He directs the Creative Writing Program at Florida State University. Jenni Lapidus received a special mention in the 2002 Pushcart Prize and was nominated for the 2003 Pushcart Prize. She has published stories in Hampton Shorts， Literal Latte， and Happy， and was a finalist in Glimmer Train Stories’ Very Short Fiction Contest. She is at work on her first novel. Jennifer Tseng received her MA in Asian-American Studies from UCLA， her MFA from University of Houston， and was twice a fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown， Massachusetts. Her work has appeared in Green Mountains Review， Indiana Review， and Ploughshares， and is forthcoming in Grand Street. "The Words Honey and Moon" is an excerpt from Woo， her novel-in-progress. Lucy Honig’s collection， The Truly Needy and Other Stories， won the 1999 Drue Heinz Prize and was published by University of Pittsburgh Press. Another collection， Open Season， was published in 2002 by Scala House. She teaches in the graduate program in international health at Boston University’s School of Public Health. Paul Michel was born in Philadelphia， grew up mostly in Ohio， and now lives in Seattle. He is a graduate of Kenyon College and of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. His stories and poetry have appeared in Anthology， Crania， Fan， the Red Rock Review， and the Best of Rosebud. "Say to the Waves" won first place in the Writers Workshop 2001 Fiction Contest. Bruce Machart’s fiction has appeared in Story， Zoetrope， Five Points， and elsewhere. A graduate of the MFA program at Ohio State University， he has since been awarded a Tennessee Williams Scholarship from the Sewanee Writers Conference， the Frank O’Connor Prize from descant magazine， and an Individual Artist’s Grant from the Ohio Arts Council. Machart’s first published story appeared in Glimmer Train in 1998. Mary Gordon has been a greatly admired novelist since the popular and critical success of her first novel， Final Payments， in 1978. She has continued to win the attention and respect of critics and the gratitude of an appreciative public with subsequent books. She is the author of five novels， three novellas， a volume of short stories， a book of essays， two memoirs， and a biography of Joan of Arc. Gordon is the Millicent C. McIntosh Professor of Writing at Barnard College and also teaches at the Columbia University Graduate School of the Arts. Her awards include the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for the best novel written by an Americ