MICHAEL CZYZNIEJEWSKI is the youngest of seven children. He grew up in Calumet City, Illinois, then moved across the river to Lansing when he was 12. In high school, he played baseball, worked at a pizzeria, and was active in forensics and drama. When he was 15, his older brother coerced him into lying about his age on a Wrigley Field job application, and ever since, he’s been a vendor at Wrigley Field (and for a while, Comiskey Park and Soldier Field), selling pop, peanuts, malt cups, hot dogs, lemon chills, and since he turned 21, beer.

In high school, Mike thought he was going to be a comic book artist, then an architect, and then a mechanical engineer, and he was somehow accepted to the latter program at the University of Illinois, where, after a year, there was a mutual decision for him to cease all math and science endeavors. During that freshman year, however, Mike started to write stories, first to amuse his friends, then as a genuine pursuit, as he liked it, and no one asked him to stop.

Mike eventually found his way into fiction workshops at U of I, and upon graduation, entered the MFA program at Bowling Green State University, the alma mater of his teacher and mentor, Jean Thompson. At BG, Mike took to editing Mid-American Review along with writing stories, and has served the magazine since, taking over as Editor-in-Chief in 2000. Mike also works as an instructor at Bowling Green in the General Studies Writing program, grading papers and constructing syllabi when he’s not writing, reading, editing, and spending time with his wife and son.

The first story in Elephants in Our Bedroom was written in 1998, and was accepted in StoryQuarterly soon after, Mike’s first publication after 192 rejections. He took ten years to write the rest of the book, honing and adding stories along the way. He is now at work on a novel about vending at Wrigley Field and another collection of stories.

Contact Mike at mikeczy@bgsu.edu