Michael Kardos is an American crime fiction writer. He is the author of the novels Bluff (2018), Before He Finds Her (2015), and The Three-Day Affair (2012), an Esquire best book of the year, as well as the story collection One Last Good Time, which won the Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters Award for fiction, and the textbook The Art and Craft of Fiction: A Writer’s Guide.
His short stories have appeared in One Story, The Southern Review, Crazyhorse, and many other magazines and anthologies and have won two Pushcart Prizes.
Michael grew up on the Jersey Shore, received a degree in music from Princeton University, and played the drums professionally for several years. He has an M.F.A. in fiction from The Ohio State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri.
Michael Kardos co-directs the creative writing program at Mississippi State University. In 2019 he received the John Grisham Master Teacher award, the highest teaching honor.
Michael Kardos currently lives in Starkville.
