Elizabeth McCracken is the author of eight books, including The Hero of This Book, The Souvenir Museum (long-listed for the National Book Award), Bowlaway, Thunderstruck & Other Stories (winner of the 2014 Story Prize and long-listed for the National Book Award), and The Giant's House (a National Book Award finalist). Her stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories five times, and have won three Pushcart Prizes, two National Magazine Awards, and an O. Henry Prize. She has served on the faculty at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and currently holds the James A. Michener Chair in Fiction at the University of Texas at Austin.