The for­mer direc­tor of the MFA Pro­gram at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan, Eileen Pol­lack grew up in the Jew­ish Catskills and was one of the first two women to grad­u­ate with a BS in physics from Yale. She is the author of five nov­els, two sto­ry col­lec­tions, and two non­fic­tions books, one of which was made into a major movie.