Alice Adams was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, raised in North Carolina, and graduated from Radcliffe College. She was the recipient the O. Henry Lifetime Achievement Award and an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She also received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. The author of five collections of short stories and ten novels--among them Listening to Billie, Superior Women, Second Chances, and A Southern Exposure--she lived in San Francisco until her death in 1999.
