Daniel Genis was born in New York City a few months after his parents emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1977. He attended Stuyvesant High School and New York University, graduating with a degree in history and French. He began a career in publishing, though soon traded in his tennis hobby for a heroin habit. During one bad week of 2003, he committed five amateur robberies, for which he served 10 years in prison. During his lost decade, Daniel wrote a novel called Narcotica and translated from the Russian for commissary money.

These days, Daniel is living with his wife in Brooklyn and writing for places like the New York Daily News, The Paris Review, Newsweek, Vice, The Daily Beast and Deadspin. More at www.danielgenis.net!