Michael Elden Pickett was born in Canoga Park, California on December 30, 1983. Two years later, his family moved to Citrus Heights, California, a suburb of Sacramento, where they have lived ever since.
At eight years old, Michael knew that he wanted to write. For his high school senior project, he wrote a novel for children entitled Sir Earl. After his graduation from Casa Roble High School in 2002, he enrolled at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah to study English Literature.
From 2003 to 2005, Michael took a break from his studies to serve a full time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Jersey, where he learned Spanish to serve the Hispanic population of that state.
Upon returning to BYU, Michael earned an honorable mention and a second place finish in the English Department's Ann Doty Fiction Contest, for his stories "The Life and Times of Bongo the Clown" and "What Was Your Name, Again?"
Michael graduated from Brigham Young University in April of 2008, and started a Master's degree in Publishing and Writing at Emerson College in the fall of 2009. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts and is working on finding a home for his latest novel, Dry Bones Can Harm No One.