:: Charlie Smith is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently The Palms, and Before and After. His novels include Cheap Ticket to Heaven and Shine Hawk. His poetry and fiction have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, The Paris Review, The New Republic, The Nation, American Poetry Review, Poetry, Kenyon Review, Triquarterly, and many other magazines. He was born in and grew up in South Georgia and was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, Duke University and the University of Iowa. He teaches at the University of Alabama and Princeton University and lives in New York City.