Michael Jayme is a native of El Monte, California. A graduate of UC Riverside's Creative Writing department, his early work was first collected in 1996 as Look Back and Laugh for the Chicano Chapbook Series, edited by Gary Soto. The following year he began publishing under the surname "Jaime-Becerra" and shortly thereafter, a limited-edition collection of prose poems, entitled The Estrellistas Off Peck Road , was released locally by Temporary Vandalism. He studied in the University of California, Irvine 's Master of Fine Arts in Fiction program, completing work toward his degree in 2001. This winter his debut collection of inter-related short stories, entitled Every Night Is Ladies'Night, will be issued by Rayo, the Latino imprint of HarperCollins.

Ladies'Night has already garnered advance praise:

• "Jaime-Becerra has exploited point-of-view in these stories on behalf of dignity and wisdom, writing with loving wit and abiding consideration. I love this book."
  -- Geoffrey Wolff, author of The Age of Consent and The Art of Burning Bridges: The Life of John O'Hara
• "...each [story] is so full of the vibrancy and passions of life that you come away from them feeling a sense of victory... Every Night Is Ladies'Night is one of those wonderful books you will want to give to everyone you know."
  -- Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto
• "If you think southern California is a landscape you already know, think again, and then read Michael Jaime-Becerra. His stories are the ones people need to know, and his craftsmanship is impeccable."
  -- Susan Straight, author of The Gettin Place and I've Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots

Jayme is currently at work on new stories, as well as a novel about rural musicians in Mexico.