Marie Manilla is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her novel The Patron Saint of Ugly won the Weatherford Award. Shrapnel received the Fred Bonnie Award for Best First Novel. Stories in her collection, Still Life with Plums, first appeared in The Chicago Tribune, Prairie Schooner, Mississippi Review, Calyx, and other journals. Her essays have appeared in Word Riot, Cossack Review, Gargoyle, Atticus Review, and elsewhere. Learn more at www.mariemanilla.com.