Michael Chabon

Chabon grew up in the planned community of Columbia, Maryland, and published his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, straight out of an Irvine MFA program, an instant success that made him famous at twenty-five.

Kavalier and Clay, researched deeply into the real Jewish immigrant history of the American comic-book industry, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 and helped legitimize genre fiction (comics, detective novels, alternate history) as serious literary material, a cause he has championed in essays as much as fiction.

Married to the novelist Ayelet Waldman, he has continued moving fluidly between literary fiction and genre projects, including comic-book and television writing.