Before the unprecedented success of her 1997 novel, The Red Tent, Anita Diamant authored several well-received books on modern Jewish culture, including The New Jewish Wedding and Choosing a Jewish Life. In Dogtown, her third novel, Diamant resurrects the widows, whores, free Africans, and reputed witches living in a dwindling town on Cape Ann in the early 1800s.

Bee Season was Myla Goldberg’s impressive debut novel. It became a national bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book, and was made into a film starring Richard Gere. She is the author of Time’s Magpie, a book of essays about Prague, and her stories have appeared in Harper’s and McSweeney’s. Her new novel, Wickett’s Remedy, tells the story of a young Irish-American woman facing down tragedy during the Great Flu epidemic of 1918.