A collection of essays that veers from the author's early years as the son of immigrants in Philadelphia to his working life in art, film, music, and poetry. It shows him to be insightful about himself and his work in spite of his protestations against the 'boosterism' of autobiography.

W. S. Di Piero is a professor of English and creative writing at Stanford University. His books include Out of Eden, Shooting the Works, and the poetry collections Brother Fire, Shadows Burning, and Skirts and Slacks. Bookforum, the New Yorker, the New York Times Book Review, and Poetry have all featured his work. A regular contributor to Threepenny Review, he also writes a regular column on the visual arts for the San Diego Reader. He lives in San Francisco, California.