Jonathan Blum is the author of two books of fiction: The Usual Uncertainties (Rescue Press, 2019), a story collection; and Last Word (Rescue Press, 2013), a novella. Both were named one of the best books of the year by Iowa Public Radio. The Usual Uncertainties was also named one of the 15 best short story collections of the year by Electric Literature. Blum grew up in Miami and graduated from UCLA and The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His short stories have appeared in The Carolina Quarterly, Electric Literature, Gulf Coast, Kenyon Review, Playboy, Sonora Review, as well as Shanxi Literature and others. He has taught fiction writing at Drew University and The University of Iowa. He has received a Hawthornden fellowship in Scotland and a Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award for his short fiction. He has also been a guest writer at the Tianjin Binhai New Area International Writing Program in China. This is his tenth year teaching at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. He lives in Los Angeles, where he teaches fiction writing workshops. He can be found online at jonathanblumwriter.com.