SCOTT O'CONNOR is the author of A Perfect Universe: Ten Stories and the novels Half World and Untouchable, which was awarded the 2011 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for Fiction. His stories have been shortlisted for the Sunday Times/EFG Story Prize and cited as Distinguished in Best American Short Stories. Additional work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Zyzzyva, The Rattling Wall, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. He teaches creative writing at Cal State Channel Islands.