Deb Olin Unferth is the author of six books of fiction and nonfiction. Her most recent book Barn 8 was named a best book of 2020 by NPR, Slate, Austin Chronicle, and Literary Hub. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and three Pushcart Prizes. An advocate of prison reform, Unferth founded and runs the Pen City Writers, a creative-writing certificate program at a maximum security prison in southern Texas.