Stuart Kestenbaum grew up in Maplewood, NJ and received a BA degree from Hamilton College. He has lived in Maine for many years, and since 1988 has been the director of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle. He is the author of three previous collections of poems, most recently Prayers and Run-on Sentences (Deerbrook Editions), and a collection of brief essays, The View From Here (Brynmorgen Press).