Abby Frucht is the author of two short story collections: Fruit of the Month, for which she received the Iowa Short Fiction Prize in 1987, and this second collection, The Bell at the End of a Rope, first published by Narrative Library and now reissued. Along the way she has written six novels: Snap; Licorice; Are You Mine?; Life before Death; Polly's Ghost; and A Well-Made Bed (Red Hen Press, 2016). A more recent collection of uncertain genre, Maids, which was a finalist or semi finalist for the Slope Editions Book Prize, the Marie Alexander Poetry Book Prize, The Robert C. Jones Short Prose book prize, the 42 Miles Poetry book prize, and the Deborah Tall Lyric Essay book prize. It tells the story of Abby's efforts to speak to and about the women employed by her parents when she and her sisters were girls on Long Island in the 1960's,'70s, and 80's. Abby served as mentor and advisor for 25 years at Vermont College MFA in Writing Program.