Series editor Heidi Pitlor moderates a panel discussion on *The Best American Short Stories 2010* with this years guest editor, Richard Russo, and contributors Brendan Mathews and Steve Almond.
Heidi Pitlor’s short fiction has been published in Ploughshares, and she is the author of the novel* The Birthdays*. She is a senior editor at Houghton Mifflin, where she oversees *The Best American Short Stories* and *The Best American Travel Writing*, and edits literary fiction and some literary nonfiction.
Richard Russo's 2001 novel, *Empire Falls*, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2002 and was also adapted into the acclaimed HBO mini-series, starring Paul Newman, Ed Harris, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Helen Hunt. He is also the author of seven novels including *Mohawk*, *Nobody's Fool*, *Straight Man*, *Bridge Of Sighs* and his newest *That Old Cape Magic* and one collection of short stories, *The Whore's Child*. Richard Russo was born in Johnstown, New York and raised in nearby Gloversville. He earned a bachelor's degree, a master's in fine arts, and a PhD from the University of Arizona. Richard has also written numerous screenplays including *Twilight* (with Robert Benton), *Keeping Mum* (with Niall Johnson), and *The Ice Harvest* (with Robert Benton) as well as the teleplay for *Empire Falls*. He has two daughters and lives with his wife in coastal Maine and Boston.
Steve Almond is the author the story collections *My Life in Heavy Metal* and *The Evil B.B. Chow*, the novel *Which Brings Me to You* (with Julianna Baggott), and the non-fiction books *Candyfreak* and *(Not That You Asked)*. His new book, *Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life*, will be out in Spring 2010. He is also, crazily, self-publishing a book called *This Won't Take But a Minute, Honey*, which is composed of 30 short short stories, and 30 brief essays on the psychology and practice of writing.
Brendan Mathews's short fiction has appeared in the *Virginia Quarterly Review*, *Epoch*, *Glimmer Train Stories*, S*outhwest Review*, *TriQuarterly*, and *The Southern Review*. He was awarded multiple prizes such as the Emily Clark Balch Prize by *VQR* and the McGinnis-Ritchie Prize by *Southwest Review*. He has worked as a journalist, editor, and digital media producer for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Britannica.com, the University of Chicago, the University of Virginia, and others.