From blind dates to back seats to a drinking game gone wrong, the short stories in Divining Venus are linked by a series of compelling characters all trying to discern something truthful about that thing called love.

In 'Reunion', a divorced empty-nester faces up to the one who got away. In 'Junior Lifesaving' a young woman hides her strengths to keep a relationship going, only to be faced with a terrible choice. In 'Say Goodbye to Hollywood' a newly-minted college graduate must choose between adolescence and adulthood when she finds herself falling for her boyfriend's father. And in the title story, 'Divining Venus', an eleven-year-old turns to a ouija board with questions about love, looking for the answers her classmates, teachers and parents don't have.

Mary Elizabeth Pope hails from Michigan, and has a PhD in English and Creative Writing from the University of Iowa. Her short stories have appeared in numerous magazines across the US, and she was a finalist for the 2012 Autumn House Fiction Prize for Divining Venus. She lives in Boston.

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