Author of ten novels (among others The Life of Jesus, Seaview and Utah) and over 20 collections of poetry (including We Are the Fire - Selected Poems, and Human Nature, both from New Directions), Toby Olson's new collection demonstrates that the passage of time has only sharpened his narrative voice. Toby Olson is a story-teller, puckish and avuncular by turns, and this new collection will delight his many admirers. Toby Olson has published nine novels, the most recent of which, The Bitter Half, appeared from Fiction Collective-2 in 2006, and twenty books of poetry, including Human Nature (New Directions, 2000). The recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller foundations and the National Endowment for the Arts, Olson's novel Seaview received the PEN/Faulkner award for The Most Distinguished Work of American Fiction in 1983. Toby Olson lives in Philadelphia and in North Truro, on Cape Cod.