A reading and conversation by McSweeney's Books authors Farah Ali and Courtney Zoffness, in conversation with Shelly Oria
McSweeney's Presents: Farah Ali and Courtney Zoffness, with Shelly Oria
Add To Calendar
Farah Ali is from Pakistan. Her work has been anthologized in the 2020 Pushcart Prize as well as received special mention in the 2018 Pushcart anthology. Her stories have appeared in Shenandoah, The Arkansas International, The Southern Review, Kenyon Review online, Copper Nickel, Ecotone, The Colorado Review, and elsewhere. People Want to Live (McSweeney's Books, fall 2021) is her first collection.
Courtney Zoffness won the 2018 Sunday Times Short Story Award, the largest international prize for short fiction, amid entries from 38 countries. Other honors include fellowships from The Center for Fiction and MacDowell. Her writing has appeared in the Paris Review Daily, the New York Times, The Southern Review, Guernica, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Spilt Milk (McSweeney's Books, spring 2021), her nonfiction debut, was named a “must-read” book by Publishers Weekly, LitHub, The Millions, Refinery29, Good Morning America, and others. Zoffness directs the creative writing program at Drew University, and lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.
Shelly Oria is the author of New York 1, Tel Aviv 0 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014) and the editor of Indelible in the Hippocampus, Writings from the MeToo Movement (McSweeney's 2019), as well as the upcoming I Know What's Best for You: Stories on Reproductive Freedom (McSweeney's 2022). Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review and on Selected Shorts at Symphony Space, has received a number of awards, and has been translated to several languages. Her website is www.shellyoria.com