Kim Coleman Foote grew up in New Jersey in the family on which the novel is based. She is the George Bennett Fellow at Exeter, and the recipient of fellowships from the NEA, Fulbright Foundation, NYFA, Illinois Arts Council, and the Center for Fiction. She has been a resident at MacDowell, Yaddo, Bread Loaf, Hedgebrook, Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center and elsewhere. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Best American Short Stories 2022, Ecotone, The Rumpus, Prairie Schooner, The Missouri Review, Black Renaissance Noire, Obsidian, and many others.