Joan Sil­ber is the author of sev­en books of fic­tion, includ­ing The Size of the World (final­ist for Los Ange­les Times Fic­tion Prize), Ideas of Heav­en (final­ist for the Nation­al Book Award) and House­hold Words (win­ner of the PEN/​Hemingway Award). Her sto­ries have appeared in The New York­er and The O. Hen­ry Prize Sto­ries. She lives in New York and teach­es at Sarah Lawrence College.