Karen E. Bender is the author of two collections of stories: Refund, which was a Finalist for the National Book Award, shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Story Prize, and Longlisted for the Story Prize, and The New Order, which was Longlisted for the Story Prize. She's also the author of two novels—A Town of Empty Rooms and Like Normal People. Her fiction has also appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, The Yale Review, The Harvard Review, Story, Guernica, and other magazines. She has won two Pushcart prizes and been reprinted in Best American Short Stories, Best American Mystery Stories, and New Stories from the South. She is Fiction editor of the journal Scoundrel Time and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rona Jaffe Foundation. She has taught writing at universities including the University of Iowa, Chatham University, Warren Wilson College and Antioch University Los Angeles, and is currently the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Hollins University. Visit her at www.karenebender.com.