Atticus Lish is the author of two books, PREPARATION FOR THE NEXT LIFE, a novel about a Chinese Muslim who immigrates illegally to the United States and the Iraq War veteran with whom she becomes involved; and LIFE IS WITH PEOPLE, a series of drawings with captions. He's at work on a second novel, which will have a criminal theme. He makes his living as a Chinese-English translator (of technical, not literary, subject matter). In the past, he worked in a Styrofoam factory, as a construction laborer, personal trainer, moving man, security guard, fast food counter person and telemarketer--in short, in every entry level job in the Help Wanted section, except taxi driver. He served a brief stretch in the Marine Corps in the war-free period between Gulf One and 9/11. Both his military experience, negligible as it was, and his study of Chinese have informed his writing. During a year-long stint teaching English in Hubei, he and his wife traveled to the Central Asian cities of Kashgar and Yili, whose surrounding deserts and vineyards had what can only be described as a spiritual impact on him and directly inspired the writing of his novel. His greatest ambition is to write books that he (and his wife) would want to read. Some of his favorite books are by journalists and include People Who Eat Darkness (Richard Lloyd Parry), Murder City (Charles Bowden), Pity the Nation (Robert Fisk), 1968: The Year that Rocked the World (Mark Kurlansky), and War (Sebastian Junger). The contemporary fiction writer he admires most is Robert Stone, and David Ayer's End of Watch is his favorite movie. When not writing, Atticus enjoys combining sports, rock 'n' roll, and just the right amount of Captain Morgan to generate a temporary state of universal love.