Beautyland

Marie-Helene Bertino was born and raised in northeast Philadelphia and is of Italian ancestry, two attributes she shares with Adina, the protagonist of Beautyland. Bertino earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Villanova University and her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from Brooklyn College. She moved to New York City in 2003 and worked in various occupations, including as a biographer for people living with traumatic brain injuries and as a music reviewer.

In 2012, Bertino’s short story collection Safe as Houses won the prestigious Iowa Short Fiction award and was published by the University of Iowa Press. Stories in the collection had already won recognition, including a Pushcart Prize for “North Of.” Safe as Houses was named one of the outstanding collections of 2012 by The Story Prize and was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Beautyland began as a short story from this collection titled “Sometimes You Break Their Hearts, Sometimes They Break Yours.”

Bertino’s debut novel, 2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas, was published by Crown in 2014. The novel was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick and one of the best books of 2012 for National Public Radio (NPR).