Paul Luikart lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but has spent most of his adult life so far in Chicago, Illinois. He studied fiction writing at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (BA, 2000), the Writers’ Studio at the University of Chicago (Certificate in Creative Writing, 2010), and Seattle Pacific University (MFA, 2014). His work has appeared in a variety of literary magazines in the last several years, including Barrelhouse, Cheap Pop, Chicago Quarterly Review, Curbside Splendor, Hobart, Johnny America, New World Writing, Spartan, Whiskey Paper, Word Riot, and Yalobusha Review. He writes a twice-monthly column for nooga.com—an online newspaper in Chattanooga—in which he discusses politics, social justice, and sometimes other things. As a full-time “day job”—but one that he cares about quite a bit—he directs an emergency shelter for homeless families.