New York: Riverhead Books, 2004. dj. Hardcover first edition - First novel, second book, by this highly praised writer from North Carolina.. Her first book, a collection of short stories called 'Missing Women' was the winner of the Willa Cather award and the Mary Ruffin Poole Award for first fiction, as well as a New York Times Notable Book of they year. Kaye Gibbons called Spence "a reader's dream. Her stories charm the soul and engage the mind... both gentle and firm, quiet and packed with glorious candor." 227 pp. ISBN: 1-57332-2860.