Gina Nahai is a best-selling author, columnist, and emeritus professor of Creative Writing at USC. Her novels have been translated into eighteen languages, and have been finalists for the Orange Award, the IMPAC Award, the Harold J. Ribalow Award, and the Jewish Book Council’s Fiction Award. She is the winner of the Los Angeles Arts Council Award, the Persian Heritage Foundation’s Award, The Simon Rockower Award, and the Phi Kappa Phi Award. Her writings have appeared in numerous national and international publications, as well as in a number of literary and academic journals and anthologies. She writers a monthly column for the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, and is a three-time finalist for an LA Press Club award. Her latest novel, THE LUMINOUS HEART OF JONAH S., was a finalist for the Jewish Book Council’s fiction award in 2014, and long-listed for the Dublin International Literary Award.