Orest Stelmach was born in Connecticut, the child of Ukrainian immigrants. He didn’t speak English until he began school as a child, going on to earn academic degrees from Dartmouth College and the University of Chicago. Along the way he earned his living washing dishes and stocking department-store shelves, later teaching English in Japan and managing international investments. In 2012, his short story “In Persona Christi” was published in the Mystery Writers of America anthology Vengeance. He speaks Ukrainian, Spanish, and Japanese. The Boy from Reactor 4 is his first novel.