Tawni O’Dell is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Sister Mine, Coal Run, and Back Roads, which was an Oprah’s Book Club pick and a Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection. She is also a contributor to the anthology, Becoming Myself: Reflections on Growing Up Female. Her work has been translated into 8 languages and been published in 20 countries. Back Roads is currently in development to be made into a film by Michael O’Hoven at Infinity Media, the producer of the Academy-Award-winning, Capote. (continues)

Tawni was born and raised in the coal-mining region of western Pennsylvania, the territory she writes about with such striking authenticity. She graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in journalism and spent many years living in the Chicago area before moving back home to Pennsylvania where she now lives with her two children and her husband, literary translator Bernard Cohen.