Michelle Wildgen lives in Madison, Wisconsin. She grew up in Stow, Ohio, where she frequently skipped church and went out for cheeseburgers at Swenson's drive-in instead. She would like to think the state remembers her fondly. She's pretty sure the drive-in does.

She attended the University of Wisconsin, worked for a cheese newspaper and several restaurants, wrote about food and books, got married, and developed a catastrophic shellfish allergy.

In New York she received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and joined the staff of the literary quarterly Tin House Magazine, where she began as an intern and then refused to leave. She is currently executive editor of the magazine.

Michelle is the author of the novels But Not For Long and You're Not You (both now in paperback from Picador), and the editor of an anthology, Food & Booze: A Tin House Literary Feast (Tin House Books). You're Not You has been optioned for film by Hilary Swank and Denise DiNovi.

Her fiction, personal essays, and food writing have also appeared in publications including Real Eats: Stories Behind the Food, The New York Times, O, the Oprah Magazine, and anthologies such as Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer, Dirty Words, Best New American Voices 2004, Best Food Writing 2004 and 2009, Death by Pad Thai and Other Unforgettable Meals, and journals including StoryQuarterly, TriQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. Awards and honors include a scholarship to Bread Loaf, residency at the Hall Farm Center in Vermont, and the Virginia Faulkner Award for Excellence in Writing from Prairie Schooner.