Karl Iagnemma was raised in suburban Detroit and attended the University of Michigan, where he studied mechanical engineering and began writing fiction. He did graduate work in robotics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and wrote much of his first book, On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction, as a Ph.D. student. His short stories have received numerous awards, including the Paris Review Plimpton Prize, first place in the Playboy college fiction contest, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Massachusetts Cultural Council. His writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Zoetrope, SEED, and NASA's ASK magazine, and been anthologized in the Best American Short Stories, Best American Erotica, and Pushcart Prize collections.
Karl currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and works as a research scientist at M.I.T. He's currently completing a novel about a phrenologist and a politician in 1850's Detroit.