Elizabeth McCracken is the author of the novels Niagara Falls All Over Again (Delta, 2001) and The Giant’s House (Dial, 1996), and the short story collection Here’s Your Hat, What’s Your Hurry (Random House, 1993, an American Library Association Notable Book of the Year). Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, and Travel and Leisure, among other places, and in 2002 she wrote the introduction for the Modern Library’s new edition of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. She has received awards and grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Bogliasco Foundation. 

Photo by Mike Minehan

Ann Patchett’s novels include Bel Canto (HarperCollins, 2001), The Magician’s Assistant (Harcourt, 1997), Taft (Houghton Mifflin, 1994), and The Patron Saint of Liars (Houghton Mifflin, 1992). Her most recent book, the memoir Truth & Beauty: A Friendship, was published by HarperCollins in 2004. Her work has also appeared in such venues as The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Gourmet, Paris Review, and Vogue. She has received numerous grants and awards, including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a James A. Michener/Copernicus Award, a Bunting Fellowship, PEN/Faulkner Award, and the Orange Prize. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Photo by Marion Ettlinger