Lise Haines is the author of the novels Small Acts of Sex and Electricity and In My Sister's Country . She has been a finalist for the PEN Nelson Algren Fiction Award and her work has appeared in a variety of literary journals including Ploughshares, Agni, and Crosscurrents. She grew up in Chicago, lived for many years in Santa Barbara, and now resides outside Boston. Haines is Visiting Briggs-Copeland Lecturer at Harvard University for the 06-07 academic year, on leave from her position as Writer-in-Residence at Emerson College.