Leonard Chang was born in New York City and studied philosophy at Dartmouth College and Harvard University. He received his MFA from the University of California at Irvine, and is the author of three previous novels: The Fruit 'N Food, Dispatches from the Cold, and Over the Shoulder. He was recently the Distinguished Visiting Writer at Mills College and is on the faculty at Antioch University's MFA Program in Los Angeles. His short stories have been published in literary journals such as Prairie Schooner and Confluence. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is working on a new Allen Choice novel.