Amy Benson’s book, The Sparkling-Eyed Boy (Houghton Mifflin, 2004), was the 2003 Katherine Bakeless Nason Prize winner in creative nonfiction, sponsored by Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference. Recent work has appeared in BOMB, Boston Review, AGNI, PANK, Black Warrior Review, and elsewhere. She teaches in the Writing Program at Columbia University and is co-founder of the First Person Plural Reading Series in Harlem. (updated 12/2013)