Carol Spaulding-Kruse is the associate professor of English at Drake University, teaching courses in the writing of fiction and the study of American literature, including multicultural, Asian American, and children’s literature.  Her fiction, poetry, and articles have appeared in several journals and literary anthologies including Glimmer Train, Ploughshares, Nimrod International, Mississippi Review and the Pushcart Annual XVI.  Her fiction has won several other national awards, including the A.E. Coppard Prize for Long, Glimmer Train’s Fiction Open, the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction, and The Ledge fiction competition.Carol is at work on a novel based on the year she lived in Paris, France, at the former residence of American ex-patriot writer, Gertude Stein.  She lives in Des Moines with her husband and son.