Christian A. Dumais was born on July 11, 1974. He grew up outside of Buffalo, New York until 1981, when he moved to Florida.  Although Christian had been writing stories since he was a child, his career as a writer didn’t officially begin until 1991, when he started publishing short stories and articles in several Tampa-based periodicals, such as the Weekly Planet, TooSquare, St. Petersburg Times, Crash Test, and City Style. At the latter publication, he was initially hired to write a simple review of a new night club in Ybor City in 1997, and he turned in “The Illusion of Swing” – more of a scathing indictment of a generation content to wallow in an empty decade than a review. Surprisingly, the piece was still published and it received a favorable enough response for him to become a full-time writer for the magazine. “The Illusion of Swing” was a turning point in his career as it laid the groundwork for what would eventually become his signature style of writing, blending his own daily life with elements of the surreal, where the mixing of reality and fiction make his stories equally true and untrue. City Style would eventually publish the two-part “What is Done, is Done”, “On Love, Mediocrity and Prescription Drugs”, “On Being Velma-less”, and “Defying Gravity” before folding under. His most successful story during this writing period was “Cowboys and Indians” – published in TooSquare – which begins with Christian pretending to be a police officer and ends with him placing his brother’s unconscious body into the trunk of his car; a story that is not only funny, but surprisingly heartbreaking.  In 2003, he moved to Poland. Removed from his country, Christian’s writing turned darker in both its humor and subject matter. Despite that, whether it’s the frightening “Geneva Street” or the beautiful “Exodus”, Christian’s work retained its surreal brand of romantic optimism. Arguably his most popular story is “Mad Dogs”, recounting an evening in Krakow when Christian goes on a drinking spree with members of the United States Secret Service, and what begins as a quiet night out quickly deteriorates into anything but.  Most recently, his work can be found in GUD, Third Wednesday, andSYSTEMS.  In 2008, Christian published his first short story collection, Empty Rooms Lonely Countries, which collects many of the aforementioned stories and more. He currently lives in Wroclaw with his lovely wife and their awesome dog.  His official website is here.