Victor LaValle was born February 3, 1972 in Manhattan and grew up in Queens. He earned an English degree from Cornell University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Columbia University. His debut collection was Slapboxing with Jesus: Stories. (1999). First novel The Ecstatic was published in 2002, followed by Shirley Jackson Award winner Big Machine (2009), Shirley Jackson Award finalist The Devil in Silver (2012), and
