Ismet Prcic was born in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1977 and immigrated to America in 1996. His first novel, Shards, was a New York Times Notable Book, a Chicago Sun-Times Best Book of the Year, as well as the winner of the Sue Kaufman Prize and the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for first fiction. His second book, Unspeakable Home, is coming out in August 2025 in paperback. Prcic also co-wrote a screenplay for Imperial Dreams, currently on Hulu.