Heidi Pitlor

Heidi Pitlor grew up in Concord, Massachusetts. She got her B.A. from McGill University in Montreal and moved out to Colorado, where in Denver and Boulder she worked as a nanny, receptionist, freelance writer, bus girl, rape crisis counselor and counselor to homeless and runaway teenagers. She moved back to Massachusetts to earn her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Emerson College and worked as a temp at Houghton Mifflin Company. Soon after, she was hired as an editorial assistant in the company's trade division. She eventually became an editor and later a senior editor at Houghton Mifflin (now Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). She wrote fiction early in the mornings before work and published her first novel, The Birthdays, in 2006. She has been the series editor of The Best American Short Stories since 2007. Her writing has appeared in such publications as Ploughshares, The Huffington Post, and Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today's Best Women Writers.

Pitlor's new novel is The Daylight Marriage.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:

The Wonder Garden, by Lauren Acampora

I'm not sure where this story writer has been all my life, but I tore through her first book, a collection. Here are deceptively simple, masterful stories of lives in a tony New York suburb. I know, I know, we're all sick of reading about suburbia, but we shouldn't be, because still, some of our best fiction comes from those quiet, well-behaved towns just far enough from urban centers. Acampora's writing is crisp and dark and bright at the same time. She is a writer to watch.

Visit Heidi Pitlor's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Daylight Marriage.

My Book, the Movie: The Daylight Marriage.

--Marshal Zeringue