Melanie Rae Thon's most recent book is the novel Sweet Hearts. She is also the author of Meteors in August and Iona Moon, and the short story collections First, Body, and Girls in the Grass. Her fiction has been included in Best American Short Stories(1995 and 1996), and she has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Artist Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation. In 1996, GRANTA included Ms. Thon on its list of twenty "Best Young American Novelists." Originally from Montana, she has taught at Emerson College, Syracuse University, University of Massachusetts, and the Ohio State University. She now teaches at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.