She received ArtsBridge scholarships and worked with mentor Keith Fowler to create writing programs for K-12 students in Orange County, California.
In the past, she taught a class in surrealist writing at the UCLA Extension Writers' Program and was a senior artist at the non-profit theater workshop The Imagination Workshop, helping mentally ill and at-risk individuals write, direct and act in their own theatrical creations.
She has named Oscar Wilde, Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm and Anne Sexton as influences on her writing.
A native of Los Angeles, Bender is a close friend of fellow UCI alumna Alice Sebold.
In 2005, she published another collection of short stories, Willful Creatures, which was nominated by The Believer magazine – owned by McSweeney's — as one of the Best Books of the Year.