MAGGIE SHIPSTEAD was born in 1983 in Orange County, California. Her writing has been published in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Missouri Review, Paris Review Daily , Tin House and The Best American Short Stories of 2010. "La Moretta," a story that was published in VQR, was a finalist for a 2012 National Magazine Award. She graduated from Harvard in 2005 and from the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 2008. Her first novel, Seating Arrangements, was very well-received when it appeared last year. It's the story of the gathering for a wedding on exclusive, quiet Waskeke Island off of Cape Cod. This celebration, planned with great precision, is buffeted by a storm of sexual misbehavior and infidelities, leading to nothing less than a loss of faith in some of the rituals of American life.