Steve Scafidi was born and raised in Virginia and earned a master of fine arts degree in creative writing at Arizona State University. His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, New Virginia Review, Southern Poetry Review, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. His first collection, Sparks from a Nine-Pound Hammer (Louisiana State University Press, 2001) was awarded the 2002 Levis Reading Prize. He is a cabinetmaker and lives in Summit Point, West Virginia.