Author, editor, and writing teacherSuzanne McConnellwas a student of Kurt Vonnegut's at the Iowa Writers' Workshop from 1965 to 1967, when Vonnegut-along with Nelson Algren and other notable authors-was in residence and finishing his masterpiece,Slaughterhouse-Five. Vonnegut and McConnell became friends, and stayed so for the rest of his life. She has published short memoirs of him intheBrooklyn Railand theWriter's Digest, and led a panel at the 2014 AWP conference titled "Vonnegut's Legacy- Writing About War and Other Debacles of the Human Condition." McConnell taught writing at Hunter College for thirty years, and she serves as the fiction editor of theBellevue Literary Review.Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, her fiction also won first prize in theNew Ohio Review's 2015 Fiction Contest, first prize inPrime Number Magazine's2014 Awards for Flash Fiction, and second prize inSo to Speak's 2008 Fiction Contest.She lives in New York City and Wellfleet, Massachusetts, with her husband, the artist Gary Kuehn. Kurt Vonnegutwas one of the few grandmasters of American literature, whose novels continue to influence new generations about the ways in which our imaginations can help us to live. Few aspects of his contribution have not been plumbed-fourteen novels, a collection of his speeches, essays, letters, a play-so this fresh self-portrait, written with the aid of a former student, is a bonanza for writers and readers everywhere.