David Matlin is a novelist, poet, and essayist. His collections of poetry and prose include the books China Beach, Dressed in Protective Fashion, and Fontana's Mirror. How The Night is Divided, Matlin's first novel was nominated for a National Book Circle Award. His latest book, Prisons, Inside the New America from Vernooykil Creek to Abu Ghraib is a new version of his original Vernooykil Creek: The Crisis of Prisons in America with an expanded focus on Abu Ghraib, the "Black Sites" and the spread of the American prison industry on a planet-wide basis. Matlin's work appears in numerous journals, anthologies, and magazines, and he is a contributing editor of Golden Handcuffs Review. He is a native Calfornian and received his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo where he studied with Robert Creeley, John Clarke, Angus Fletcher, and Diane Christian. He lives in San Diego.