Matthew Gavin Frank is the author of the food-and-wine memoir, Barolo (The University of Nebraska Press), the poetry manuscripts Sweat and Venom (forthcoming from Barrow Street Press) and Sagittarius Agitprop (Black Lawrence Press/Dzanc Books), and the chapbooks Four Hours to Mpumalanga (Pudding House Publications), and Aardvark (West Town Press). Recent work appears in the New Republic, Field, Epoch, Crazyhorse, Indiana Review, North American Review, Pleiades, Prairie Schooner, AGNI, Hotel Amerika, The Best Food Writing 2006, The Best Travel Writing 2008 and 2009, Creative Nonfiction, Gastronomica, and others. He was born and raised in Illinois, worked in the restaurant industry for 15 years and currently teaches Creative Writing at Grand Valley State University. His current favorite ice cream flavor: Ancho Chile.