Leora Skolkin-Smith was born in Manhattan in 1952 and spent her childhood between Pound Ridge, New York, and Israel, with regular visits to her mother’s birthplace in Jerusalem. She earned her BA, MFA, and a teaching fellowship from Sarah Lawrence College. As a writer, she has received numerous awards and honors, including a PEN/ Faulkner Grant, a Robert Gage Foundation Grant, and a PEN American Center Grant. In addition to her debut novel, Edges, she is the author of Hystera, winner of the 2012 USA Book Award and 2012 Global E-books Award, as well as an International Book Awards and National Indie Excellence Awards finalist. She has written essays for The Washington Post, Psychology Today, and The National Book Critics Circle’s Critical Mass blog, and is currently a contributing editor to ReadySteadyBooks.com.