Mameve Medwed is the author of five novels, Mail, Host Family, The End of an Error, How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life (2007 Massachusetts Book Award Honors in Fiction), and Of Men and Their Mothers (pub date April 22, 2008). Her short stories, essays, and book reviews have appeared in, among others, Yankee, Redbook, Playgirl, The Boston Globe, Ascent, The Missouri Review, Confrontation, The Readerville Journal, Newsday and The Washington Post. She has taught fiction writing for many years at The Cambridge Center for Adult Education, has been a mentor in the writing program at Lesley University, read papers for the English Department at Simmons College and has taken part in writing festivals across the country, serving on panels and teaching seminars. She has been interviewed on Maine Public Radio, The Voice of America and other radio and TV programs and has been profiled in many newspapers.

Tom Perrotta is the author of six works of fiction including *Bad Haircut*, *The Wishbones*, *Election*, and the New York Times bestsellers *Joe College*, *Little Children*, and most recently, *The Abstinence Teacher*. In 1999, *Election* was made into an acclaimed feature film directed by Alexander Payne and starring Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick. In 2006, Perrotta was nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay for the movie version of *Little Children*, which was directed by Todd Field and starred Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connelly. He lives with his family outside Boston.

Stephen McCauley grew up outside of Boston. He attended the University of Vermont as an undergraduate and studied for a year in France at the University of Nice. Upon graduation, he worked at hotels, kindergartens, ice cream stands, and health food stores. He taught yoga in a church basement and cleaned houses. For many years, he worked as a travel agent. In the 1980's, he moved to Brooklyn. After taking a few writing courses at adult learning centers, he enrolled in the writing program at Columbia University. At the suggestion of writer Stephen Koch, he began working on his first novel.