Paulette Livers is the author of the novel CEMENTVILLE (Counterpoint Press), winner of the Elle Lettres Prize, and finalist for  Center for Fiction Flaherty-Dunnan Prize for First Novel, Chicago Writers Association's Book of the Year, and Kentucky Book Award. She is the recipient of grants from the Illinois Arts Council and Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, as well as residencies and fellowships from the Artcroft Foundation, Aspen Writers Foundation, the Bedell Foundation, Center for the American West, Denver Women’s Press Club, Key West Literary Seminars, Ox-Bow Artists Residence, Vermont Studio Center, and Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Her stories have appeared in journals including Southwest Review, Dos Passos Review, Spring Gun Press, and the audio-journal Bound Off. She is a MacDowell Fellow and member of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. When she isn't working on her own novels, she is Creative Director at Mighty Sword Studio in Chicago.