Lynn Sharon Schwartz is the author of two previous poetry collections: See You in the Dark , and In Solitary . Her twenty three books include the novels Disturbances in the Field, Leaving Brooklyn , nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award, and Rough Strife , nominated for the National Book Award. She has also published non fiction, short stories, a memoir, essays, and translations. She is the recipient of awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts (fiction and translation), and the New York State Foundation for the Arts. She has taught widely at colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad, and currently teaches at the Bennington College Writing Seminars and the Columbia University School of the Arts.