Alec Michod was born in Chicago, but now he’s in Brooklyn.

The White City, his first novel, was published in 2004. Matthew Pearl called it a “thinking person’s thriller,” and Kevin Baker called it a “spooky, atmospheric, first-rate historical thriller” and Alec a “bold new writer,” which Alec, a former stutterer, finds a bit grandiose but pretty cool.

Alec graduated, with an MFA, from Columbia University, and before that the University of Chicago. He has published in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Village Voice, and The Believer. In recent years, he has interviewed three Jonathans (Lethem, Franzen, Safran-Foer), two Michaels (Cunningham, Chabon), two Richards (Powers, Price), and one Hiram (Rick Moody).

He is allegedly writing a new novel, in part about the Counter Intelligence Corps.