Nikita Nelin immigrated from the former Soviet Union into the U.S. in 1990. He holds an MFA from Brooklyn College. He is the winner of the Sean O’Faolain prize, the SLS non-fiction prize, and was short listed in the Faulkner-Wisdom short story competition. Currently he is somewhere in the south working on his first novel. Defunct is the idea of ever predicting how long he will stay in any one place. Also defunct: letter writing, any lift off on his jump shot, and the little red bandana he had to wear around his neck.