Zachary Lazar is the author of five previous books, including the novel Sway, the memoir Evenings Empire: The Story of My Fathers Murder, and the novel I Pity the Poor Immigrant, which was a New York Times Notable Book of 2014. His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, and the 2015 John Updike Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for a writer in mid-career whose work has demonstrated consistent excellence. Lazar lives in New Orleans, where he is on the creative writing faculty at Tulane University.