Michael Cunningham was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1952 and grew up in Pasadena. California. He received his BA in English literature from Stanford University and his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. His novel A Home at the End of the World was published by FSG in 1990 to wide acclaim. Flesh and Blood, another novel, followed in 1995. His work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Redbook, Esquire, The Paris Review, The New Yorker, Vogue, and Metropolitan Home. His story "White Angel" was chosen for Best American Short Stories 1989. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1993, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1988, and a Michener Fellowship from the University of Iowa in 1982.

Michael Cunningham currently lives in New York City.