Tania James was raised in Louisville, Kentucky, after a brief stint in Chicago from ages 0 to 4.  She graduated from Harvard University in 2003 with a bachelors degree in Visual Environmental Studies, with a focus in filmmaking.  She received her Masters of Fine Arts in fiction from Columbia's School of the Arts in 2006.  Her recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in One Story magazine, Guernica, Elle India, and fivechapters.com.  Her debut novel Atlas of Unknowns (Knopf, April 2009) was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick and an Editor's Choice for The San Francisco Chronicle and The New York Times.