David Reich has an MFA from the University of Arkansas, where he won the John Gould Fletcher Award for creative writing. Following 11 years during which he taught in the Massachusetts state college system and at Northeastern University, he has had a long career in magazine publishing as both an editor and a reporter, covering topics including science, religion politics, the arts, the environment, law, and law enforcement. Since the 1970s, Reich's prose has appeared in literary journals like North American Review, Transatlantic Review, Brilliant Corners, Gargoyle, The Smith, Beyond Baroque, and many others. Carlo Rotella, author of Cut Time, called Reich's 2010 novel The Antiracism Trainings "funny" and "incisive," while the Midwest Book Review called it "a choice addition to literary fiction collections." An earlier novel was nominated for the Editor's Book Award by Daniel Menaker, then of the New Yorker.