August Tarrier received her M.A. in fiction in 1989, after which she went on to get a Ph.D. in English from Temple. She is a book and journal editor, as well as a professional writer and communications consultant. A former independent book store owner, August teaches graduate and undergraduate writing, literature, and editing classes at the University of Baltimore's School of  Design, where she is an Assistant Professor. She is a past winner of the Tobias Wolfe and Katherine Anne Porter fiction prizes. Her story, “I Hold You Harmless,” was awarded first prize by judge Robert Olen Butler in the 2005 Zoetrope Short Fiction Contest. The story was published in Zoetrope: All Story in Spring, 2006, as well as in their online supplement.