Patricia Henley's first novel, Hummingbird House, was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1999 and the New Yorker Fiction Prize in 2000. Her second novel, In the River Sweet, was published by Pantheon in 2002 and released in paperback in 2004. Her publications also include three collections of stories, Friday Night at Silver Star, The Secret of Cartwheels, and Worship of the Common Heart. She has taught in the MFA program at Purdue since 1987.