Mary Gaitskill is the author of the story collections Bad Behavior, Don’t Cry, and Because They Wanted To (nominated for a PEN/Faulkner Award) and the novels Two Girls, Fat and Thin and Veronica, which was nominated for the National Book Award. Her story “Secretary” was the basis for the film of the same name. Gaitskill is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories, and The O. Henry Prize Stories. She lives in New York.