Michael Trocchia grew up in West Hempstead, New York. He lives now in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, where he teaches philosophy and works in the library at James Madison University. He is a Creative Director for Eunoia Theatre Ensemble. His poems and prose have appeared in journals such as Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics, Asheville Poetry Review, Baltimore Review, The Bitter Oleander, Black Sun Lit, The Boiler Journal, Caketrain, Chicago Quarterly Review, Colorado Review, Heavy Feather Review, Mid-American Review, The Midwest Quarterly, New Orleans Review, Tar River Poetry, Tarpaulin Sky, UCity Review, and The Worcester Review. His work is forthcoming in Ploughshares and has been anthologized in Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume IX: Virginia (Texas Review Press).