GINA OCHSNER is the author of two collections of short stories, People I Wanted to Be and The Necessary Grace to Fall, both of which won the Oregon Book Award, and a novel, The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight, which was longslisted for the Orange Prize. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. She is a recipient of the Flannery O'Connor Award, an NEA grant, a Guggenheim, and the Raymond Carver Prize.Gina lives in Salem, Oregon with her husband, three children and two canine children. She serves as Corban University's Writer in Residence, as well as serving on the faculty in the Masters of Fine Arts - Creative Writing program at Seattle Pacific University.