Ron Hansen is a Nebraskan native and the author of eight novels, including Exiles; Mariette in Ecstasy; the National Book Award finalist Atticus; The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which was adapted for film in 2007; and A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion (2011). His story collection is entitled She Loves Me Not: New and Selected Stories (Scribner, 2012). Hansen is Gerard Manley Hopkins S.J. Professor in the Arts and Humanities at Santa Clara University.