Derek Heckman was born in Peoria, Illinois, and obtained his undergraduate degree in English from the University of Iowa, where he completed Iowa’s Undergraduate Certificate in Writing program and participated in its Irish Writing Program at University College Dublin. He was twice awarded the Scott A. Anderson Memorial Award for creative writing, as well as the Miriam Gilbert Award for Shakespeare scholarship. In 2013, he received the Beinecke Memorial Scholarship, the funds from which he is currently using as an MFA candidate in creative writing at the University of Montana. His short story “Hair” was a finalist for the 2014 Ploughshares Emerging Writers Contest.