First Fiction | Authors

AUTHORS ON THE FIRST FICTION TOUR

Novelists appear in alphabetical order. Place cursor over photo for book image and title information.

	Marc Acito - Hailed as the "gay Dave Barry," Acito is a syndicated humorist, whose column, "The Gospel According to Marc," appears in nineteen newspapers, including the Chicago Free Press and Outword-Los Angeles. After being kicked out of one of the finest drama schools in the country, he went on to sing roles with major opera companies, including Seattle Opera. How I Paid for College (Broadway Books) is his first novel. First Fiction Tour Fall 2004.
	Lorraine Adams - Author of Harbor (Knopf ), Adams was educated at Princeton University and was a graduate fellow at Columbia University, where she received a master’s degree in literature. She won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting and was a staff writer for the Washington Post for eleven years. She lives in Washington, D.C., and is at work on her second novel. First Fiction Tour Fall 2004.
	Miranda Beverly-Whittemore - Beverly-Whittemore was born to two academics and lived for a time in West Africa, where her parents conducted ethnographic research. After graduating from Vassar College, she worked for the 92nd Street Y's Unterberg Poetry Center, where she helped to curate the main reading series and writing program. The Effects of Light (Warner) is her debut novel. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. First Fiction Tour Spring 2005.
	Joshua Braff - Braff, the author of The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill), has an M.F.A. in creative writing. He grew up in New Jersey and now lives with his wife and children in Berkeley, California .First Fiction Tour Fall 2004.
	Matthew Carnahan - Playwright and director Carnahan received the Chesterfield Writer's Film Project fellowship from Steven Spielberg. His feature directorial debut, Black Circle Boys, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. He also directed Rudyland, the award-winning documentary about former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The author is currently working on a new novel after publishing Serpent Girl (Villard) in 2005. First Fiction Tour Spring 2005.
	Lisa Selin Davis - Selin Davis is a freelance journalist in New York City. Her work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, New York, Life, This Old House Magazine, The Independent, Metropolis, Preservation, Marie Claire and ReadyMade. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in literary journals such as The Literary Review, West Branch, Hayden’s Ferry Review and the anthology Women Behaving Badly. Belly (Little, Brown) is her first novel. First Fiction Tour Fall 2005.
	Nell Freudenberger - Freudenberger is a New Yorker who has taught English in Bangkok and New Delhi. Lucky Girls (Ecco) is her acclaimed debut collection of short stories about women living -- and loving -- in unfamiliar territory. She is currently at work on her second novel. First Fiction Tour Fall 2003.
	Ryan Harty - A graduate of University of California-Berkeley and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Harty grew up in Arizona and Northern California. He currently lives in San Francisco and teaches at Stanford University, where he was a Wallace Stegner Fellow. Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona is available through the University of Iowa Press. First Fiction Tour Fall 2003.
	Jason Headley - Headley grew up in small-town West Virginia before moving to San Francisco, where he won an Addy Award for writing copy at an advertising agency. He is currently at work to a follow-up novel to Small Town Odds (Chronicle Books). First Fiction Tour Fall 2004.
	Marya Hornbacher - A working journalist and the author of the award-winning, Pulitzer Prize-nominated book, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia, which has been published in fourteen languages and is taught in universities all over the world. The Center of Winter (HarperCollins) is her first novel and she is currently at work on another novel, a collection of poetry, and a book of nonfiction essays. First Fiction Tour Spring 2005.
	Samantha Hunt - Hunt is a writer and artist who lives in New York. Her stories and poems have appeared in McSweeney's, Cabinet, Jubilat, Seed Magazine, The Iowa Review and This American Life. She teaches writing and bookmaking at Pratt Institute and is the fiction editor of Crowd magazine. The Village Voice Literary Supplement voted The Seas (McAdams/Cage) one of the top 27 books of 2004. First Fiction Tour Fall 2004.
	Nic Kelman - Kelman, the author of Girls (Little, Brown), studied Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. After spending some years working in independent film, he attended Brown University on a full scholarship for his MFA in Creative Writing and was awarded the James Assatly Prize for graduate fiction for girls. He now writes and teaches in New York City. First Fiction Tour Fall 2003.
	Audrey Niffenegger - Niffenegger is a visual artist and a professor in the Interdisciplinary Book Arts MFA Program at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and paper Arts, where she teaches writing, letterpress printing, and fine edition book production. She shows her artwork at Printworks Gallery in Chicago. The Time Traveler's Wife (MacAdam/Cage) is her first novel. First Fiction Tour Fall 2003.
	Karen Olsson - Karen Olsson is a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly and a former editor of The Texas Observer. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Baffler, The Nation, and other publications, and has Awards from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies for best investigative reporting and best news feature. She lives in Austin, Texas. Waterloo (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) is her first novel. First Fiction Tour Fall 2005.
	Julie Orringer - Orringer, the author of How to Breathe Underwater (Knopf), received her B.A. from Cornell University and her M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is currently a Truman Capote Fellow in the Stegner Program at Stanford University, where she is working on a collection of short stories. Her stories have appeared in The Paris Review, The Yale Review, and The Pushcart Prize XXV. First Fiction Tour Fall 2003.
	Edward Schwarzschild - Schwarzschild teaches at the University at Albany, SUNY, where he holds a joint appointment in the English department and the New York State Writers Institute. He has published in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Southwest Review, StoryQuarterly, Moment Magazine, and The Yale Journal of Criticism. Responsible Men (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill) is his first novel. First Fiction Tour Spring 2005.
	Victoria Vinton - Vinton’s short stories have appeared in various publications including Sewanee Review and Prairie Schooner. A recipient of an Artist Fellowship from the New York Foundation of the Arts and a Masters of Fine Arts degree in writing from Columbia, she lives with her daughter in Brooklyn, New York, where she works as a literacy consultant for the New York City Public Schools. The Jungle Law (MacAdam/Cage) is her first novel. First Fiction Tour Fall 2005.