Michael Duma­n­is was born in the for­mer Sovi­et Union and lived there until his par­ents were grant­ed polit­i­cal asy­lum in the Unit­ed States. He holds a BA from Johns Hop­kins, an MFA from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Iowa Writ­ers’ Work­shop, and a PhD from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Hous­ton. The author of My Sovi­et Union, win­ner of the Juniper Prize for Poet­ry, and the coed­i­tor of the anthol­o­gy Legit­i­mate Dan­gers: Amer­i­can Poets of the New Cen­tu­ry, he is the recip­i­ent of the Lyric Poet­ry Award from the Poet­ry Soci­ety of Amer­i­ca. He lives in Ver­mont, where he teach­es at Ben­ning­ton Col­lege and serves as edi­tor of Ben­ning­ton Review.