Mary Bucci Bush received her M.A. and D.A. from the graduate program in creative writing at Syracuse University, where she worked with George P. Elliott and Raymond Carver. Her short story collection, A Place of Light, was published by Guernica in 2006. Her novel, Sweet Hope, about Italians and African Americans working together on a Mississippi Delta cotton plantation 1901-1906, was recently released with Guernica. She lives in Pasadena, California.