N. A. Wood loved the Beats so much he nearly followed them to Columbia for an MFA-but chose Canada instead (or Canada chose him, depending on who you ask). There, he wrote chapbooks with future game designers, trained as a clown, and wandered through nights of poetry, drugs, burlesque, hustles, madness, near misses with cops, and one near brush with Leonard Cohen.

He avoided high and holy places like the plague, so an angel found him in Chinatown and God saved him in a Gravenhurst snowstorm-outside a kitchen, under the northern lights, beside a bear.

He hitchhiked through Ontario, fled west after the falling towers, and traveled through Appalachia, New Orleans, and Nicaragua. He married the love of his life and is now raising three wonderful children, caring for three cats, three fish, one dog, and one spider, growing a jungle in his basement, and working a job.

He gave up writing because life got in the way-but when life almost ended, he picked up the pen and began again with six words: Why not? Let's see what happens.

Ad astra per aspera.