Malena’s stories and essays have appeared in The Alaska Quarterly Review, The Believer, GlimmerTrain, The Massachussetts Review, Salon.com, StoryQuarterly, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere. She contributes regular book reviews to the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times. Harper Perennial published her first novel, If You Follow Me, in March 2010. The manuscript won the Michener-Copernicus Award, and the first section of the novel was runner-up in the Pirate’s Alley/Faulkner contest. Having come full circle, Malena once again lives in San Francisco, with her husband, Matt Schumaker, their son Max, and two cranky cats. She is currently at work on a new novel.