Laura van den Berg was born and raised in Florida. She is the author of six works of fiction, She is the author of six works of fiction, most recently the novel State of Paradise. Her work has been supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Bard Fiction Prize, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Her books have been twice shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award. Laura teaches fiction and directs the creative writing program at Harvard University. Her next novel, Ring of Night, is forthcoming from FSG and John Murray in the UK in 2007. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband, the writer Paul Yoon, and their dog, Oscar.