October 16: Laura M. Macdonald and Amy Bloom

Laura M. Macdonald's most recent book, Curse of the Narrows, won the 2005 Dartmouth Book Award and was a finalist for the 2006 Charles Taylor Prize for Non-Fiction, the Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Prize, and the John W. Dafoe Prize. It was also featured as Barnes and Noble New Voices selection. She is the co-author of one novel. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she now lives in New York. Her website is Laura M. Macdonald.com.

Amy Bloom is the author of two novels, two collections of short stories, and a book of essays. She's been nominated for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, and numerous anthologies here and abroad. She has written for the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, Slate, and Salon, among many other publications, and has won a National Magazine Award. She lives in Connecticut and teaches at Yale University.