Jason Brown, born in 1969, grew up in Portland, Maine, and received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Cornell University. Later he attended Stanford University as a Wallace Stegner Fellow and a Truman Capote Fellow.

"Animal Stories" appears in Jason Brown's debut collection of thirteen short stories entitled Driving the Heart and Other Stories, as well as in an anthology entitled 25 and Under/Fiction. The Georgia Review first published "Animal Stories" in its Summer 1994 issue.

In 25 and Under/Fiction, Brown notes that he was so confused at the time he wrote "Animal Stories" "that I could barely make a sandwich." He was twenty-two, and his mother had been in the hospital for a successful operation, but he failed to visit her because they did not have a good relationship.

Currently, Brown teaches writing at Stanford. In addition to the Georgia Review and 25 and Under/Fiction, Brown's...