Josip Novakovich lived in Croatia until he was twenty. He is the author of the novel April Fool’s Day, two essay collections, and three story collections, and his work has been anthologized in Best American Poetry, The Pushcart Prize, and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. A recipient of the Whiting Writer’s Award, the Ingram Merrill Award, and an American Book Award, he has been a writing fellow of the New York Library and of the Black Mountain Institute in Las Vegas. Novakovich teaches in the MFA program at Penn State.