George Saunders is the author of nine books, including the New York Times bestsellers Congratulations, by the way and Tenth of December, an essay collection, The Braindead Megaphone, and the critically acclaimed collections CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, Pastoralia, and In Persuasion Nation. In 2006, he was awarded a MacArthur fellowship. He teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Syracuse University.