Thursday, May 18 at 7 PM

Peter Orner and Chaz Reetz-Lailo with Lauren Pretnar

Peter Orner is the 2002-2003 winner of the Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His story collection, Esther Stories, was a New York Times Notable Book, a Finalist for the Pen/Hemingway Award, and winner of the Samuel Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction. Orner holds both an MFA from the University of Iowa and a degree in law. His work has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories and the Pushcart Prize Anthology and has appeared in a number of national publications, including The Atlantic Monthly and The Paris Review. Orner currently lives in San Francisco and teaches at San Francisco State University.

Chaz Reetz-Laiolo is a fiction editor at NorthernPros.com. A recent recipient of a Writer’s Grant from the Vermont Studio Center, Reetz-Laiolo has an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He lives in California with his daughter, Isa.