Michael Spurgeon was residing in San Cristobal de Las Casas at the time of the Zapatista uprising. He is married to a Mexican national of Mayan origin, and he and his wife and their two children currently live in Sacramento, CA, where Michael is a tenured professor of English at American River College. His writing has appeared in regional and national journals, including The North American Review, Sonora Review, The Packinghouse Review, and many others. He is the author of two short collections of poems-Valente's Delicate Wrist (Talent House Press, 1998) and Prosthetic Breath & Other Poems (3300 Press, 1995)-and his poetry has been anthologized in Burning the Little Candle (Ad Lumen Press, 2013) and Late Peaches: Poems by Sacramento Poets (SPC Press, 2013). He is co-founder and Board President of 916 Ink, a Sacramento area non-profit dedicated to promoting children's literacy through creative writing. Let The Water Hold Me Down (Ad Lumen Press 2013) is his first novel.