Stephen Dobyns is a leading American poet, novelist and crime writer. From his first collection Concurring Beasts, through Black Dog, Red Dog and Cemetery Nights (available from Bloodaxe), to Body Traffic, Dobyns has consistently written poems which are ‘brave, ravenous, intensely moving, and utterly his own’ (Thomas Lux). His Velocities: New and Selected Poems (Bloodaxe, 1996) draws on all these books. His later collections Common Carnage and Pallbearers Envying the One Who Rides are also published in Britain by Bloodaxe. His twenty novels (some of these available in Britain) include ten in his Charlie Bradshaw detective series set in Saratoga Springs, and the celebrated Cold Dog Soup. His novel The Church of Dead Girls, published by Viking, has sold over 120,000 copies in Britain. His last novel, Boy in the Water, was published by Viking in 1999.