Jill McCorkle has written nine books of fiction including Creatures of Habit, Going Away Shoes, Carolina Moon and Ferris Beach. Her books have been named New York Times Notables five times. McCorkle has won the New England Booksellers Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature and the North Carolina Award for Literature. She has taught at the University of North Carolina, Bennington College, Tufts University and Harvard. A native of Lumberton, North Carolina, she lives in Hillsborough.