








Recipient of the Theodore Hoepfner Fiction Award and past writer-in-residence at the Mishkenot Sha'ananim Artists' Colony in Jerusalem, Pushcart Prize-nominee Perle Besserman was praised by Isaac Bashevis Singer for the "clarity and feeling for mystic lore" of her writing and by Publisher's Weekly for its "wisdom [that] points to a universal practice of the heart." Her autobiographical novel "Pilgrimage" was published by Houghton Mifflin, and her latest novels, "Kabuki Boy", "Widow Zion", and "Yeshiva Girl", a story collection, are available from Aqueous Books, Pinyon Publishing, and Homebound Publishing, respectively. Her short fiction has appeared in The Southern Humanities Review, Agni, Transatlantic Review, Nebraska Review, Southerly, North American Review, Bamboo Ridge, and in many other publications, both online and in print. Besserman's most recent books of creative non-fiction are "A New Zen for Women" (Palgrave Macmillan) and "Zen Radicals, Rebels, and Reformers", coauthored with Manfred Steger (Wisdom Books).
Perle holds a doctorate in Comparative Literature from Columbia University and has lectured, toured, taught, and appeared on television, radio, and in two documentary films about her work in the US, Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, China, and the Middle East. Her books have been recorded and released in both audio and e-book versions and translated into over ten languages. Visit Perle on the Web at: www.perlebesserman.net
John Barrows is the art advisor for Imitation Fruit. He enjoys doing illustrations for the journal because it lets him have fun and be creative. You can see more of his work at: www.barrowsart.com.