Deserts of sand and deserts of the heart, Middle Eastern deserts and American deserts, the story collection Two Deserts follows the circles of two unforgettable women across cultures and deserts. The Arabian circle includes a seventeen-year-old girl yearning for freedom and a Muslim mother plotting to rescue her son from a jihadist movement. The American circle includes a hooker who is training her daughter for the life, a priest in love, and a club of women whose husbands are dying.
Author of the novel, What Birds Can Only Whisper, and the novella, The Galapagos Story, JULIE BRICKMAN has published her work in the North American Review, Louisville Review, Barcelona Review, failbetter.com, Persimmons Tree, San Diego Union Tribune, and other journals. The recipient of grants from the Canada Council, a writer-in-residence position at the Berton House in Dawson City, Yukon, and a Pushcart Prize nomination, Brickman teaches fiction in the MFA program of Spalding University’s School of Creative and Professional Writing in Louisville, Kentucky. She divides her time between Laguna Beach, California and New York City.
Jeff Gurner is a voice, stage and screen actor. He has recorded hundreds of radio and television commercials, video games, and is an award winning audiobook narrator. He is best known for his narration of Patrick Lee and to Karen Miller’s The Star Wars Clone Wars series and works by Mark Sullivan and Terry Francona. AudioFile magazine praised Jeff''s "deep, compelling voice and well-acted presentation" and awarded him a 2006 AudioFile Earphones Award for Jennifer Egan’s The Keep. Gurner’s theater credits include The Lion King on Broadway, Guys and Dolls, Harold and Maude: The Musical, and A Christmas Story. Television credits include The Good Wife, Mercy, and Law & Order.
Hillary Huber is a multiple Audie Award finalist, an AudioFile Earphones Award winner, and an AudioFile Best Voice. She has recorded over 550 titles, spanning many genres. A huge fan of audiobooks, when she's not narrating one, she's listening to one!
Carol Monda is an Earphones Award–winning narrator and accomplished voice-over artist. She is also an award-winning actor known for her work in Out of Season, After You Left, and The Gentlemen.
Robert Petkoff has won multiple AudioFile Earphones awards for his acclaimed narrations. He was named Best Voice of Fiction & Classics for his reading of The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore by Benjamin Hale. His other narration credits include Oath of Office by Michael Palmer, Gangster Squad by Paul Lieberman, and books by David Foster Wallace.Petkoff has appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in theaters across America and Europe. He has worked in television and film. His theater credits include Lord Evelyn Oakleigh in the Broadway production of Anything Goes, Perchik as part of the Tony-nomianted cast of Fiddler on the Roof, and Hubert Humphrey in the Tony award-winning play All the Way. He has also had numerous roles in television on shows such as Law and Order and Married with Children.
Alan Winter is an audiobook narrator whose readings include Hard Work by Roy Williams and Sexual Intelligence by Marty Klein, among others.