Alan Lelchuk is a novelist and professor, who was born and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He received his B.A. in World Literature from Brooklyn College in 1960, studied at University College (London) in 1962-63, and received his M.A.in 1963 and Ph.D. in 1965, both in English from Stanford University. His critically acclaimed novels are "American Mischief,""Miriam at Thirty-Four," "Shrinking: The Beginning of My Own Ending," "Miriam in Her Forties," "Brooklyn Boy," "Playing the Game," and "Ziff: A Life?" He co-edited "8 Great Hebrew Short Novels" and has written, for young adults, "On Home Ground." He is the author of a new memoir, "Breaking Ground: How Jackie Robinson Changed Brooklyn." He is a co-founder of Steerforth Press, has taught at Brandeis University and Amherst College, and since 1985 has been on the faculty of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.