Tara L. Masih grew up in the small harbor town of Northport, situated along the Long Island Sound. Much of her time was spent on the beaches and in the woods, and as a result her writing is often set within the framework of nature and place. Her fiction, poetry, and essays have been widely anthologized. Awards include first place in The Ledge Magazine's fiction contest, a finalist fiction grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, finalist placing for the Reynolds Price Prize in Fiction, and Pushcart Prize, Best New American Voices, and Best of the Web nominations. She is editor of the acclaimed Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction (a ForeWord Book of the Year) and The Chalk Circle: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays (a Skipping Stones Honor Award Book; an IBPA Benjamin Franklin silver medalist; a ForeWord Book of the Year); her story collection Where the Dog Star Never Glows was a National Best Books finalist. She is series editor of the annual Best Small Fictions anthology (Queen's Ferry Press). www.taramasih.com