Leaving Orbit (53 page)
Authors: Margaret Lazarus Dean
The prize is judged by Robert Polito, author of
Hollywood & God, Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson, Doubles
, and
A Reader’s Guide to James Merrill’s
The Changing Light at Sandover, and formerly director of the Graduate Writing Program at the New School in New York City. He is currently president of the Poetry Foundation in Chicago.
The Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize is funded in part by endowed gifts from the Arsham Ohanessian Charitable Remainder Unitrust and the Ruth Easton Fund of the Edelstein Family Foundation.
Arsham Ohanessian, an Armenian born in Iraq who came to the United States in 1952, was an avid reader and a tireless advocate for human rights and peace. He strongly believed in the power of literature and education to make a positive impact on humanity.
Ruth Easton, born in North Branch, Minnesota, was a Broadway actress in the 1920s and 1930s. The Ruth Easton Fund of the Edelstein Family Foundation is pleased to support the work of emerging artists and writers in her honor.
Graywolf Press is grateful to Arsham Ohanessian and Ruth Easton for their generous support.
MARGARET LAZARUS DEAN
holds a BA from Wellesley College and an MFA from the University of Michigan. She is the author of
The Time It Takes to Fall
(Simon & Schuster, 2007), a novel about the space shuttle
Challenger
disaster. Her work has appeared in
Story Quarterly, Five Chapters
, and
Michigan Quarterly Review.
She is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Hopwood Award for the novel, and a Tennessee Arts Commission fellowship. An associate professor of English at the University of Tennessee, she lives in Knoxville.
Book design by Rachel Holscher. Composition by Bookmobile Design & Digital Publisher Services, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Manufactured by Versa Press on acid-free, 30 percent postconsumer wastepaper.