Michael Jaime-Becerra is a native of El Monte, California, a working-class suburb of Los Angeles. In 2004 his debut collection of interrelated short stories, Every Night Is Ladies' Night, was published by HarperCollins. Ladies' Night won glowing reviews from critics nationwide. USA Today described the book as "a love letter to the city […], a place where luck is in short supply but hope survives, as quiet and resilient as the sunrise." Ladies' Night was also listed as one of the year's best books by The Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle, and was awarded a California Book Award. In 2005 The California Report, a statewide radio program, named Michael Jaime-Becerra one of ten Californians to watch in the next decade. Susan Straight, author of Highwire Moon and A Million Nightingales, has written: "If you think Southern California is a landscape you already know, think again, and then read Michael Jaime-Becerra. His stories are the ones people need to know, and his craftsmanship is impeccable." Jaime-Becerra's first novel, entitled This Time Tomorrow, will be published in February 2010. Michael Jaime-Becerra holds an MFA from the University of California, Irvine and is an associate professor of creative writing at UC-Riverside. Jayme is currently at work on new stories, as well as a novel about rural musicians in Mexico