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.