Michael Kardos is the author of the novels Bluff (Mysterious Press, 2018), Before He Finds Her (Mysterious Press, 2015), and The Three-Day Affair (Mysterious Press, 2012), an Esquire best book of the year, as well as the story collection One Last Good Time (Press 53, 2011), winner of the Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters Award for fiction, and the textbook The Art and Craft of Fiction: A Writer’s Guide (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013). His short stories have appeared in One Story, Southern Review, Pleiades, and elsewhere, and have won two Pushcart Prizes. He currently codirects the creative writing program at Mississippi State University, where he received the Grisham Master Teacher award.  

Photo by Megan Bean