Gary Shteyngart was born in Leningrad in 1972 and came to the United States seven years later. His essays appear regularly in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times and have been featured in nine Best American anthologies. He is the author of six bestselling novels including The Russian Debutante's Handbook, Super Sad True Love Story, Our Country Friends, and Vera, or Faith. His books have won several awards including the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic literature, the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction, the National Jewish Book Award, and have been published in thirty countries. His memoir, Little Failure, was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He lives in New York with his wife, son, and dog.