Michael Kardos is the author of the novels Fun City Heist, Bluff, Before He Finds Her, and The Three-Day Affair. His story collection One Last Good Time won the Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters Award for fiction, and his book The Art and Craft of Fiction: A Writer’s Guide is taught at colleges and universities across the country. Michael's short stories have appeared in One Story, The Southern Review, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and many other magazines and anthologies, and have won two Pushcart Prizes. 

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Michael grew up on the Jersey Shore, received a degree in music from Princeton University, and played the drums professionally for a number of years before focusing on fiction writing. He received an M.F.A. from Ohio State and a Ph.D from the University of Missouri, and for 15 years he co-directed the creative writing program at Mississippi State University, where he was awarded the John Grisham Master Teacher award, the university's highest teaching honor. ​He currently lives with his family in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.