Jill McCorkle’s eight books include the New York Times Notable Books The Cheer Leader, July 7th, Tending to Virginia, Ferris Beach, and Carolina Moon, as well as four short story collections. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including The Atlantic, Ploughshares, New Stories from the South, and Best American Short Stories 2002, 2004, and 2009. A member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, she teaches writing at North Carolina State University and is the recipient of the New England Book Award, the Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature, and the North Carolina Award for Literature. Her new novel Life After Life charts the daily triumphs and challenges of the residents and staff of a North Carolina retirement facility. 

“With a wit that never mocks and a tenderness that never gushes” (Washington Post), Jami Attenberg’s novel The Middlesteins, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, follows a quirky Midwestern family as it unravels under the weight of a mother’s lifelong food obsession. Attenberg’s other novels include The Kept Man, a story with an “admirable sense of fun” (San Francisco Chronicle) about a passive woman freed from inertia, and the “singular and disquieting” (Chicago Tribune)The Melting Season, as well as her debut story collection Instant Love: Fiction. She has written about topics such as sex, technology, design, books, television, and urban life for a number of publications, including Salon, Details, the New York Times, The Awl, and The Rumpus. A blogger since 1998, she was also a web producer for the HBO television shows The Sopranos and Six Feet Under.