Perle Besserman is the author of three novels—Pilgrimage, Kabuki Boy, and Widow Zion—and a linked story collection, Yeshiva Girl. Her forthcoming book, Grassroots Zen: Community and Practice in the Twenty-First Century, co-authored with Manfred Steger, will be published in 2017. She has received the Theodore Hoepfner Fiction Award and is a past writer-in-residence at the Mishkenot Sha’ananim Artist’s Colony in Jerusalem. Her stories have appeared in The Southern Humanities Review, The Nebraska Review, Hurricane Alice, AGNI, Other Voices, and elsewhere. (updated 10/2016)