Jo Ann Beard and Mary-Beth Hughes

Jo Ann Beard’s books include the essay collections The Boys of My Youth and Festival Days, which was a New York Times Notable Book and Boston Globe Best Book of the Year; and the novel In Zanesville (all Little, Brown). The Collected Works of Jo Ann Beard was published last year by Serpent’s Tail. The recipient of a Whiting Award and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, she teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence College.

Mary-Beth Hughes is the author of two novels, Wavemaker II and The Loved Ones; a story collection, Double Happiness, and, most recently, The Ocean House, a novel in stories (all Grove). She has been a DeWitt-Wallace/Reader’s Digest Fellow at MacDowell, the Director’s Guest at Civitella Ranieri, and a guest at Yaddo. She has taught creative writing at Pratt Institute, NYU, Skidmore College, Bennington College Writing Seminars, and A Public Space.