Mark Harrison was a semi-finalist in the 2007 “Discovery”/The Nation Poetry Contest. He grew up in Calaveras County, California, famous for its annual Jumping Frog Jubilee, inspired by Mark Twain’s story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," and infamous for being the secret location of serial killers Leonard Lake and Charles Ng’s torture chamber. Mark has worked on the research staff of a national primate center, as a chemist for a California winery, as a reporter for a daily newspaper in Alaska, and has received degrees from Stanford University and Syracuse University. He teaches writing in Menlo Park, California.