Jill McCorkle is the author of five novels, The Cheer Leader (Algonquin Books, 2003), Carolina Moon (Ballantine Books, 1997), Tending to Virginia (Ballantine Books, 1997), July 7th (Algonquin Books, 1992), Ferris Beach (Algonquin Books, 1991), and three story collections, most recently Creatures of Habit (A Shannon Ravenel Book, 2003). Her work has appeared in The Atlantic Magazine, Ploughshares, Best American Short Stories and New Stories from the South. A recipient of the John Dos Passos Prize (1999) and the North Carolina Award for Literature (1999), and the New England Book Award (1993), she has taught creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Tufts, Harvard, Brandeis and Bennington College. She is currently on faculty at North Carolina State University.  

Photo by Tom Rankin