The Best Contemporary Women's Fiction

About the Authors

ELIZABETH BENEDICT is an acclaimed novelist, journalist, teacher of creative writing, editor, and writing coach. Her novels include the New York Times bestseller Almost and The Practice of Deceit.

JENNA BLUM is the author of the New York Times bestseller Those Who Save Us and The Stormchasers. She currently runs master novel workshops for Grub Street Writers in Boston.

MOLLY GLOSS is the author of the national bestseller The Hearts of Horses, The Jump-Off Creek, a finalist for the PEN/ Faulkner Award, and Wild Life, winner of the James Tiptree Award.

NICOLE MONES began working in China in 1977 and she brings to her fiction writing an in-depth understanding of the country and its culture. She is the author of the novels The Last Chinese Chef, A Cup of Light, and Lost in Translation, a New York Times Notable Book.

MAGGIE O'FARRELL is the author of five novels, including The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and The Hand That First Held Mine. Born in Northern Ireland in 1972, O'Farrell grew up in Wales and Scotland.

ANN PATCHETT is the author of five novels, including Bel Canto, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize, The Magician's Assistant, The Patron Saint of Liars, and Taft. She has written for the Atlantic, Gourmet, New York Times Magazine, Vogue, the Washington Post, and others.