The child of Czech refugees, Mark Slouka’s books have been trans­lat­ed into six­teen lan­guages. A con­tribut­ing edi­tor at Harper’s, his essays and sto­ries have appeared fre­quent­ly in Best Amer­i­can Essays and Best Amer­i­can Sto­ries. A Guggen­heim and NEA Fel­low­ship recip­i­ent, he has taught at Colum­bia, Har­vard, and until recent­ly chaired the Writ­ing Pro­gram at The Uni­ver­si­ty of Chicago.