M. Randal O’Wain is the author of Meander Belt: Family, Loss, and Coming of Age in the Working Class South. He is assistant teaching professor of creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and serves as a National Endowment of the Arts Writing fellow at the Alderson Federal Correctional Institution. His work has been published in Oxford American, The Masters Review, Crazyhorse, Zone 3, and Guernica Magazine.