Michael Alenyikov is the author of Ivan and Misha, (Northwestern University Press) which won the Northern California Book Award for Fiction and was a Finalist for the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction. His second book, Sorrow’s Drive: A Quartet, was published in 2022, (Spectrum Books).

His writing has appeared in: The Georgia Review, Foglifter, Chicago Quarterly Review, James White Review, Catamaran Literary Reader, New York Stories, the Gay & Lesbian Review, The Forge, Descant, Modern Words, 14 Hills, Black Heart, and Jonathan. Two short stories were nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His story, Arithmetic, was performed on stage by San Francisco’s acclaimed Word for Word acting company. Three have appeared in the anthology series, Best Gay Stories, Lethe Press.

He has received scholarships to attend the Napa Valley Summer Writers Conference and the Squaw Valley Summer Writers Conference.

He’s a native of New York City. His childhood was spent in the outer reaches of the Bronx, Brooklyn (Avenue Z on the shores of Gravesend Bay!), Queens, with several years in Phoenix and L.A. wedged in between the Bronx and Brooklyn. Graduate school led to a sojourn in Syracuse, NY, where he received a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, followed by a decade in Boston and Cambridge, MA. An interest in filmmaking led to a summer program at NYU, and a new career writing and content development for multimedia projects in Manhattan.

He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), 1989-91. He was disabled with a neuro immune disease (ME/CFS), which led him to San Francisco, where he’s a long time resident, and to writing. He hates to say illness can be a gift (it’s not), but when he stopped working he pursued a lifelong dream to write fiction

He has no pets or husband but does have an affordable apartment in San Francisco, which is kind of a wonder. He facilitates the 18th St writing group now in its 20th year.