Amanda Boyden knows a thing or two about gritty. Her first novel, the excellent Pretty Little Dirty, explores two midwestern girls' delving into the punk scene of the early 1980's. After a childhood that saw her raised in Minnesota, and the Chicago and St. Louis areas, Amanda settled in the swampy revelry of New Orleans where she attended the Creative Writing program at the University of New Orleans and has been there ever since. [Full disclosure: Amanda and her husband, Torontoist-approved writer Joseph Boyden, were colleagues of mine at the University of New Orleans.] more ›