Marian Fontana and Elissa Schappell
Elissa Schappell is the author of the novel Use Me which was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway award and selected as both a New York Times Notable Book and Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year. A.M. Homes raves, "Use Me screams Read Me. In these tens stories Elissa Schappell captures the devastinging absurdity, the dark comedy that is conteporary life. It is the family stripped bare, sex and death, and other nervy tall tales. This is serious stuff and it's seriously funny." Elissa Schappell is also founding editor of Tin House.
Marian Fontana is the author of A Widow's Walk: A Memoir of 9/11 which was excerpted in Vanity Fair, has been nominated for a Books for a Better Life Award and was featured in People Magazine's top 10 Books of the Year. Publishers Weekly writes, "September 11, 2001, was the eighth anniversary of Fontana's wedding to firefighter Dave; Dave's last call to her was from the World Trade Tower site after the first plane crashed; he promised to call back in 20 minutes. The first chapters of this book follow the grim days of waiting and hoping almost hour by hour, then chronicle the first few of an endless succession of wakes and funerals. With its built-in drama and pathos and excellent pacing, this book should bring Fontana to the attention of talk shows nationwide."