Xhenet Aliu’s debut novel, Brass, won both the Townsend Prize and the Georgia Author of the Year First Novel Prize. Her debut fiction collection, Domesticated Wild Things, won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction. Aliu's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Hobart, American Short Fiction, LitHub, BuzzFeed, and elsewhere, and she has received multiple scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation, and a fellowship from the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, among other awards.