Marie Manilla is the author of The Patron Saint of Ugly, winner of the Weatherford Award, and Shrapnel, winner of the Fred Bonnie Award for Best First Novel. Stories in her collection, Still Life with Plums, first appeared in Chicago Tribune, Prairie Schooner, Calyx, Mississippi Review, and other journals. Her essays have appeared in Gargoyle, Appalachian Review, Solstice, Still: The Journal, and elsewhere. Marie lives in her hometown of Huntington with her husband, Don Primerano.