Michelle Herman’s newest book is the novel Close-Up. She’s the author of three earlier novels – Missing, Dog, and Devotion – and the novella collection A New and Glorious Life, as well as three essay collections – The Middle of Everything, Stories We Tell Ourselves, and Like A Song – and a book for children, A Girl’s Guide to Life. She taught creative writing for many years at Ohio State, where she was a founder of the MFA program in creative writing. Since 2019, she has been dispensing advice every Sunday as a columnist for Slate.