Adrian Matejka was born in Nuremberg, Germany and attended Indiana University and the MFA program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His first collection of poems, The Devil’s Garden (Alice James Books, 2003), won the 2002 New York / New England Award. His second collection, Mixology (Penguin, 2009), was a winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series and a finalist for an NAACP Image Award in Outstanding Literature. His most recent book, The Big Smoke (Penguin, 2013) was awarded the 2014 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was a finalist for the 2013 National Book Award, the 2014 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the 2014 Pulitzer Prize. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Lannan Foundation. He teaches in the MFA program at Indiana University in Bloomington and is working on a new collection of poems and a graphic novel.