Boris Fishman was born in Minsk, Belarus, and immigrated to the United States in 1988 at the age of nine. His journalism, essays, and criticism have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and Book Review, The New Republic, The London Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Travel & Leisure, and New York Magazine.

His first novel, A Replacement Life, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year (2014), winner of the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and the American Library Association's Sophie Brody Medal; a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick; and a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. His second novel, Don't Let My Baby Do Rodeo, was also a New York Times Notable Book of theYear (2016), and received rave reviews.

Boris teaches in Princeton University's Creative Writing Program, and lives in New York City.