MARY ROBISON was born in Washington, D.C. She graduated from Johns Hopkins, where she studied with John Barth. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Pushcart Prizes, an O. Henry Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. She is the author of four novels, Oh! (1981), Subtraction (1991), Why Did I Ever (2001), and One D.O.A., one on the way (2009), and of three other story collections, Days (1979), An Amateur's Guide to the Night (1983), and Believe Them (1988). Robison has written for Hollywood and has been a contributor to The New Yorker since 1977. She lives in Gainesville, Florida.

1. Coach
2. An Amateur's Guide to the Night
3. Smoke
4. In the Woods
5. The Help
6. I Get By
7. Daughters
8. Seizing Control

9. Kite and Paint
10. Father, Grandfather
11. Trying
12. Pretty Ice
13. While Home
14. In Jewel
15. Happy Boy, Allen
16. I Am Twenty-One
17. Independence Day
18. Apostasy
19. For Real
20. May Queen
21. Your Errant Mom
22. The Wellman Twins
23. Mirror
24. Care
25. Doctor's Sons
26. What I Hear
27. Smart
28. Sisters
29. Likely Lake
30. Yours

"Author's Note: Several of the stories in this volume appear as they did originally in The New Yorker and are in slightly different form from the versions collected in Days and An Amateur's Guide to the Night. The author is most grateful to the magazine and especially to Roger Angell. "Coach," "Smoke," "In the Woods," "The Help," "I Get By," "Daughters," "Seizing Control," "Kite and Paint," "Trying," "Pretty Ice," "While Home," "In Jewel," "I Am Twenty-One," "Independence Day," "For Real," "May Queen," "The Wellman Twins," "Mirror," "Doctor's Sons," "What I Hear," "Smart," "Sisters," and "Yours" appeared in The New Yorker; "Likely Lake" appeared in The Paris Review; "Happy Boy, Allen" appeared in the Mississippi Review; "An Amateur's Guide to the Night" appeared in Seventeen; and "Your Errant Mom" appeared in "Gentleman's Quarterly." -- ECIP galley