Jill McCorkle is the author of eight previous books, five of which were New York Times Notable Books. Two stories in Going Away Shoes were published in The Best American Short Stories. Winner of the New England Book Award, the Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature, and the North Carolina Award for Literature, she teaches writing at North Carolina State University and lives with her husband in Hillsborough, North Carolina.

The foibles of the people in Jill McCorkle's world are so familiar that we want nothing so much as to watch them walk into¿and then get out of¿life's inevitable traps. Here, in her first collection in eight years, McCorkle collects eleven brand-new stories bristling with her characteristic combination of wit and weight.In honeymoon shoes, mud-covered hunting boots, or glass slippers, all of the women in these stories march to a place of new awareness, in one way or another, transforming their lives. They make mistakes, but they don't waste time hiding behind them. They move on. They are strong. And they're funny, even when they are sad.These stories are the work of a great storyteller who knows exactly how¿and why¿to pair pain with laughter.