Todd James Pierce, Orcutt, California, is professor of literature at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. Pierce is the author of four previous books, including Newsworld, which won the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, and Three Years in Wonderland: The Disney Brothers, C. V. Wood, and the Making of the Great American Theme Park, the latter published by University Press of Mississippi. His work has appeared in over seventy magazines and journals, including the Harvard Review, the Georgia Review, and the North American Review.