Richard Ford was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1944. He has published eight novels and four collections of stories, including The Sportswriter, Independence Day, The Lay of the Land and, most recently, the New York Times bestseller, Canada. His novel, Independence Day, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the first time the same book had won both prizes. Let Me Be Frank with You was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize 2015. Richard Ford lives in Maine, with his wife, Kristina Ford.