2008 Fiction Participants

Listed in alphabetical order

Anne Easter Smith

Anne Easter Smith is a native of England who has lived in the United States for thirty-three years. Her love of English history goes back to age ten, when the British education system mandated history as part of the curriculum through graduation. She grew up with London on her doorstep and has walked much of the countryside described in her first novel, A Rose for the Crown, which was inspired by her fascination with Richard III. Anne began her writing career as a freelancer for a small monthly publication in Plattsburgh, New York, in 1980. From 1986 until 1995, she was the features editor of the daily newspaper in Plattsburgh. A Rose for the Crown was published in March 2006 by Simon & Schuster and has been reprinted three times for a total of more than 50,000 copies. Her second book, Daughter of York, is now on the bookshelves after launching at the Jabberwocky in February, and she has a contract for two more books, all with Touchstone Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.

Áine Greaney

Born and brought up in County Mayo, Ireland, Áine Greaney now lives and writes in Newburyport. Her short fiction and personal essays have been published in numerous U.S. and Irish literary journals and anthologies and have won several awards. Her novel, The Big House, was published in June 2003, and her short story collection, The Sheepbreeders Dance, was published in September 2006. Her second novel, Dance Lessons, is under consideration. She teaches her own writing workshops at various schools, libraries, and arts facilities, including Emerson College, the New Hampshire Writers Project, and the Seacoast Writers Association. She was on the 2007 faculty of the Cape Cod Writers Conference. A regular public speaker and panelist, Greaney has presented at many facilities in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Ireland.

Ann Hood

Ann Hood’s most recent novel, The Knitting Circle, was published in 2007. Her other novels include Waiting to Vanish (Bantam, 1988), Three-Legged Horse (Bantam, 1989), Something Blue (Bantam, 1991), Places to Stay the Night (Doubleday, 1993), The Properties of Water (Doubleday, 1995), and Ruby (Picador, 1998). She has also written a memoir, Do Not Go Gentle: My Search for Miracles in a Cynical Time (Picador, 1999); a book on the craft of writing, Creating Character Emotions (Story Press, 1998); and a collection of short stories, An Ornithologist’s Guide to Life (Norton, 2004). Most recently, her essays and short stories have appeared in Good Housekeeping, The New York Times, Ladies Home Journal, More, Tin House, Ploughshares, and The Paris Review. Hood has won a Best American Spiritual Writing Award, the Paul Bowles Prize for Short Fiction, and two Pushcart Prizes. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with her husband and their children.

Uzma Aslam Khan

Uzma Aslam Khan grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, and has lived in New York and Arizona. She currently lives in Lahore with her husband, the novelist David Maine. Trespassing, her second novel and her first novel to be published in the U.S., will appear in eleven languages.

David Maine

David Maine grew up in Farmington, Connecticut; attended Oberlin College and the University of Arizona; and worked in the mental health systems of Massachusetts and Arizona. He taught English in Morocco from 1995 to 1998 and has lived in Pakistan since then. He resides in Lahore with his wife, the novelist Uzma Aslam Khan. He is the author of four novels: The Preservationist; Fallen; The Book of Samson; and his most recent work, Monster, 1959.

Mameve Medwed

Mameve Medwed is the author of five novels: Mail, Host Family, The End of an Error, How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life (which was selected as a Fiction Honor Book for 2007 by the Massachusetts Book Awards), and the forthcoming Of Men and Their Mothers, which will be published in 2008. Her short stories, essays, and book reviews have appeared in many publications, including Yankee, Redbook, Missouri Review, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, and Newsday. She and her husband have two grown sons and live in Cambridge.

Sergio Troncoso

Sergio Troncoso was born in El Paso, Texas, and now lives in New York City. After graduating from Harvard College, he was a Fulbright Scholar in Mexico and studied international relations and philosophy at Yale University. Troncoso’s stories have been featured in many anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature (W.W. Norton), Latino Boom: An Anthology of U.S. Latino Literature (Pearson/Longman Publishing), Once Upon a Cuento (Curbstone Press), Hecho en Tejas: An Anthology of Texas-Mexican Literature (University of New Mexico Press), City Wilds: Essays and Stories about Urban Nature (University of Georgia Press), and New World: Young Latino Writers (Dell Publishing). In 1999 his book of short stories, The Last Tortilla and Other Stories (University of Arizona Press), won the Premio Aztlán for the best book by a new Chicano writer, and the Southwest Book Award from the Border Regional Library Association. His novel, The Nature of Truth (Northwestern University Press), was published in 2003.