The Queen of Bad Influences: Stories

JIM SHEPARD has written eight novels, including The Book of Aron, which won the Sophie Brody Medal, the PEN/New England Award, The Ribalow Prize, and the Clark Fiction Prize, as well as six story collections, including Like You'd Understand, Anyway, a finalist for the National Book Award and Story Prize winner. Eight of his stories have been selected for the Best American Short Stories, two for the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, and three for Pushcart Prizes. He's the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and lives in Williamstown with his wife, the fiction writer Karen Shepard, and two beagles.