Carol Sturm Smith has co-authored cookbooks, turned movie scripts into novels, and edited projects as diverse as mushroom books and historical romances. Fat People is her first work of serious fiction; it earned her New York State Council on the Arts grant. Born in Trenton, New Jersey, she has lived in New England, but claims Manhattan - where she holes in, part of the time with her daughter, Dove - as home. She is currently drafting Cosmic Clowns, the second in a series of related novels.