Heidi Julavits was born and raised in Portland, Maine. She is the author of four critically acclaimed novels (The Vanishers, The Uses of Enchantment, The Effect of Living Backwards, and The Mineral Palace). She coedited, with Sheila Heti and Leanne Shapton, the bestselling Women in Clothes. Her short stories have appeared in Harper's, Esquire, the Best American Short Stories, McSweeney's, among other places. Her nonfiction has appeared in Harper's, the New York Times, Elle, Bookforum, and the Best American Travel Essays. She is a founding co-editor of The Believer magazine, the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, and winner of the PEN/New England Fiction Award. She currently teaches at Columbia University. She lives in Manhattan and Maine with her husband, Ben Marcus, and their two children.