MIKE HARVKEY grew up in rural northwest Missouri, near the city of independence, a crystal meth stronghold long before Breaking Bad. When he moved to New York in 2001 to attend Columbia’s creative writing MFA program as a Bingham Fellow, he began training in Kyokushin, a brutal form of martial arts known for bare-knuckle fighting. He was promoted to black belt in 2006. From 2010 to 2013, Mike Harvkey served as deputy reviews editor for Publishers Weekly, covering literary fiction. He is a contributing writer to NYLON, NYLON Guys, Trunk, Guernica, The L, and other magazines.