Nafissa Thompson-Spires was born and raised in Southern California. She earned a PhD in English from Vanderbilt University and a MFA in creative writing from the University of Illinois. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The White Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, StoryQuarterly, Lunch Ticket, and The Feminist Wire, among other publications. Her short-story collection, Heads of the Colored People (37 Ink, 2018), was longlisted for the National Book Awards and received the PEN Open Book Award, the LA Times Art Sidenbaum Award for First Fiction, the Hurston/Wright Award for Fiction, and the Audie Award for Best Short Stories.