After graduating from Colgate University, Bill Barich served in the U.S. Peace Corps in eastern Nigeria (Biafra), then settled in northern California where many of his books are set. He published Laughing in the Hills, his first book, a classic account of racetrack life, in 1980. William Shawn, editor of The New Yorker, ran a two-part excerpt from the book and appointed Barich a staff writer. His contributions over the next fifteen years fall into three categories: travel and the sporting life; reportage; and short fiction. Traveling Light, his account of a sojourn abroad in Italy and England, appeared in 1984, after which he won a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction.[1] His other books include Hard to Be Good (stories); Big Dreams: Into the Heart of California (travel); Carson Valley (novel); Crazy for Rivers (angling/autobiography); and A Fine Place to Daydream (travel/racing). Barich's work has been included in Best American Short Stories and many other anthologies. In addition to The New Yorker, he has contributed to Esquire, Sports Illustrated, American Poetry Review, Salon, Narrative, and other magazines and journals, and he is a Literary Laureate of the San Francisco Public Library. He currently lives in Dublin, Ireland.