Shobha Rao is the author of the novel Girls Burn Brighter, which was longlisted for the 2018 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and the short story collection An Unrestored Woman. She is the winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction, and her story “Kavitha and Mustafa” was chosen by T. C. Boyle for inclusion in Best American Short Stories 2015. She moved to the United States from India at the age of seven and currently lives in San Francisco. This fall, Rao will be the Grace Paley Teaching Fellow at the New School.