Jonathan Paper­nick was born and raised in Toron­to, Cana­da. He is the author of the acclaimed short sto­ry col­lec­tion The Ascent of Eli Israel, anoth­er col­lec­tion, There is no Oth­er, and the nov­els The Book of Stone and I Am My Beloveds. His work has received starred reviews from Pub­lish­ers Week­ly and Library Jour­nal and has been trans­lat­ed into Span­ish and Ital­ian. Paper­nick has taught fic­tion writ­ing at Emer­son Col­lege since 2007 and serves as Senior Writer-in-Res­i­dence in the Depart­ment of Writ­ing, Lit­er­a­ture and Pub­lish­ing. He has two sons and lives with his wife in Prov­i­dence, Rhode Island.