Lance Pototschnik grew up in rural Maryland, in a house surrounded by farms. The last of his parents’ eight children, he was born with severe allergies and a debilitating skin disorder, which often confined him to the house, where he busied himself by drawing and painting. As a sick child born at the back of a large family, life positioned Pototschnik as an observer, and he learned to capitalize on the station through writing.

Pototschnik’s first book, The Shell of a Person, was touted as one of the best of 2013 by an emerging, self-published author. Shell revealed Pototschnik as a breakout talent, a writer with the rare power to make one laugh to and through the brink of undignified, maniacal, public cackling. His next books (Hollywood Ending – 2017, Golden Monkey – 2019) firmly established Pototschnik as a master memoirist who achieves poignancy in his writing by couching anguish inside of gut-busting humor.

In addition to writing his books, Pototschnik also hand-paints the covers. Today, he lives in Shanghai.