Rosellen Brown is the author of the nov­els Civ­il Wars, Half a Heart, Ten­der Mer­cies, Before and After, and six oth­er books. Her sto­ries have appeared fre­quent­ly in O. Hen­ry Prize Sto­ries, Best Amer­i­can Short Sto­ries and Best Short Sto­ries of the Cen­tu­ry. She now teach­es in the MFA in Writ­ing Pro­gram at the School of the Art Insti­tute of Chicago.