MICHAEL HOGAN was born in Newport, Rhode Island in 1943. He is the author of twenty books including novels, histories, social and political essays, short story collections and poetry. His work has received two Pushcart Prizes, an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship, a PEN Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award and the gold medal of the Mexico Geographical Society. His poetry is widely anthologized and appears in many textbooks. Hogan has worked as consultant for the Western States Arts Foundation, for the Poets in the Schools programs in Arizona, Colorado and California, and for the National Endowment for the Arts conducting writing workshops in prisons. For two decades he was head of the English Department at the prestigious American School of Guadalajara and, most recently, was Latin American Consultant to the State Department's Office of Overseas Schools. He lives in Guadalajara with the textile artist Lucinda Mayo and their dog, Molly Malone.