STEPHEN BLUE­STONE lives in New York City. His vol­umes THE LAUGH­ING MON­KEYS OF GRAV­I­TY and THE FLA­GRANT DEAD were nom­i­nat­ed for the Nation­al Book Award. Blue­stone has won The Greens­boro Review Poet­ry Prize, The Thomas Mer­ton Prize, and prizes in the Robert Penn War­ren Com­pe­ti­tion and else­where. His lat­est book THE PAINT­ED CLOCK, a Pulitzer Prize nom­i­nee, is in its sec­ond printing.