Alyson Hagy is a writer of lyrical and emotionally rugged fiction in which psychologically complex characters confront the realities of their lives, often within a rural and decidedly American landscape and culture. Born Alyson Carol Hagy on 1 August 1960, she grew up on a farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, the child of country physician John Albert Hagy and homemaker Carol Elaine Lindsay. Her grandparents were ministers, blacksmiths, and schoolteachers. A preoccupation with vocation frequently enters Hagy's work, possibly because of her early exposure to traditional professions. Hagy said in an unpublished 25 April 2000 letter, in regard to the Kentucky racetrackers, retired Merchant Marines, and female Coast Guard members in her stories, that "I was drawn to these occupations, these intricate vocations, and I wanted readers to see and smell and taste these very physical laborers at work. I wanted to translate those weather-worn occupations into stories." She...