Mikhail Shishkin was born in 1961 in Moscow.

Shishkin studied English and German at Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. After graduation he worked as a street sweeper, road worker, journalist, school teacher and translator. He debuted as a writer in 1993, when his short story "Calligraphy Lesson" was published in 1993 in Znamya magazin. Since 1995 he has lived in Zurich, Switzerland.

Fiction

• One Night Befalls Us All / ???? ??????? ???? ????, novel (1993)
• Blind Musician / ?????? ????????, novella (1994)
• The Taking of Izmail / ?????? ???????, novel (1999) - Russian Booker Prize - 2000
• Maiden Hair / ??????? ?????, novel (2005) - Big Book Prize - 2006, National Best-Seller Prize - 2006

Non-Fiction

• Russian Switzerland / ??????? ????????? literary and historical guidebook (2000)
• Montreux-Missolunghi-Astapovo, in the Steps of Byron and Tolstoy / Montreux-Missolunghi-Astapowo, Auf den Spuren von Byron und Tolstoj (2002), an essay collection, in German (2002) - Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger - 2005