About the Author: Mark J. Mitchell was born in Chicago and grew up in Southern California. He was raised Catholic, and studied writing and Medieval Literature at UC Santa Cruz under Raymond Carver, George Hitchcock, Robert M. Durling and Barbara Hull. His poetry has appeared in hundreds of periodicals over the last thirty-five years, as well as the anthologies Good Poems, American Places (edited by Garrison Keillor), Hunger Enough, Retail Woes, and Line Drives. It has also been nominated for both Pushcart Prizes and The Best of the Net. He is the author of two full-length collections, Lent 1999 (Leaf Garden Press) and Soren Kierkegaard Witnesses an Execution (Local Gems) as well as three chapbooks, Three Visitors (Negative Capability Press, Detective Movie (Fermata Publishing) and Artifacts and Relics, (Folded Word). His historical novel, Knight Prisoner, is available from Vagabondage Press. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, the documentarian and activist Joan Juster. He makes a living showing people pretty things in his city.