Elissa Schappell most recent collection of short stories is "Blueprints for Building Better Girls" (Simon & Schuster, 2011). She is also the author of "Use Me," which was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway award, a New York Times Notable Book, and a Los Angeles Times best book of the year. She is a founding editor of "Tin House Magazine," a contributing editor at "Vanity Fair," a frequent reviewer for the "New York Times Book Review," and formerly senior editor of "The Paris Review." She is also co-editor with Jenny Offill of two anthologies, "The Friend Who Got Away" and "Money Changes Everything." Her short fiction, essays and non-fiction have appeared in places such as "The Paris Review," "SPIN," "GQ," "The Bitch in the House," "The Mrs. Dalloway Reader," "The KGB Bar Reader," and "Cooking and Stealing." She lives in Brooklyn.

James McKean's  publications include poems and essays in magazines such as "The Atlantic," "Poetry," "The Southern Review," "The Georgia Review," "The Gettysburg Review," "The Iowa Review" and "Gray's Sporting Journal;" two books of poems, "Headlong" from the University of Utah Press, and "Tree of Heaven" from the University of Iowa Press; and a collection of essays, "Home Stand: Growing Up in Sports" from Michigan State University Press. His awards include a 1987 Great Lakes Colleges Association's New Writer Award in Poetry, a 1994 Iowa Poetry Award, a "notable-essay" mention in the "Best American Essays" 1999, an essay chosen for the "Best American Sports Writing" 2003; and a 2006 Pushcart Prize. He teaches at Tinker Mountain Writers' Conference, the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, and Mount Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.