Michael Upchurch is a novelist, arts writer and literary journalist whose published books include “Jamboree” (Knopf, 1981), “Air” (Available Press/Ballantine, 1986), “The Flame Forest” (Available Press/Ballantine, 1989) and “Passive Intruder” (Norton, 1995). His essay, “Stead Made Me Do It: ‘House of All Nations’ by Christina Stead,” appeared in “Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love,” edited by Anne Fadiman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005).

His book reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, American Scholar and other publications. From 1998 to 2008 he was the staff book critic for The Seattle Times, and from 2008 to 2014 he was a general arts writer for The Seattle Times. In 2014, he resigned from The Seattle Times to concentrate again on fiction and literary journalism.