Laurie Levy is a Chicago author and journalist, whose grant in literature from the Illinois Arts Council helped enable her to travel to France and Italy to research Stendhal’s life. Born in Omaha and raised in Iowa and Arizona, she has contributed to major Chicago and national publications; published three books of nonfiction and a short story collection, The Inland Ladies; and edited two collections of fiction by Chicago authors. She has worked as a fashion editor, an international restaurant critic, a film critic, book reviewer, and travel writer and columnist, while publishing short stories in a wide variety of national literary magazines. Laurie is the mother of two and grandmother of three.