John Haskell’s books include I Am Not Jackson Pollock,  American Purgatorio, Out of My Skin, and The Complete Ballet, a fictional essay, and most recently Trying to Be, a collection of stories and essays. He has been a performer and playwright, written artist catalogues and contributed to books. His fiction and nonfiction pieces have appeared in numerous publications, including Lucky Peach, Conjunctions, A Public Space, and BOMB. He is a contributing editor at BOMB and at A Public Space, and has performed on the radio shows The Next Big Thing and Studio 360. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, several NYFA grants, and has taught writing and literature in Los Angeles, New York and Leipzig.