Keith Flynn was born August 4, 1962. He studied at Mars Hill College and the University of NC-Asheville. While at UNCA, Flynn was one of the founders of the student newspaper, The Blue Banner, and won the Sandburg Prize for Poetry in 1985. He moved to Nashville, TN in 1987 and formed the nationally acclaimed rock band, The Crystal Zoo, which has produced three albums: Swimming Through Lake Eerie (1992), Pouch (1996) and the forthcoming spoken-word and music compilation, Nervous Splendor (2002). Serving as lyricist and lead singer, Flynn was twice awarded the Emerging Songwriter Prize from the American Society of Composers, Artists and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1991 and 1992. He is the author of three collections of poetry: The Talking Drum (Metropolis Communications, 1991), The Book of Monsters (Urthona Press, 1994) and The Lost Sea (Iris Press, 2000). His poems have appeared in scores of magazines and journals in the United States and Europe, including The Carolina Quarterly, The Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, The Cuirt Journal (Ireland), Earth and Soul: The Kostroma Anthology (Russia), The 20th Century Anthology of NC Poets, Poetry Wales, Shenandoah, Rattle, and The Southern Poetry Review. With his band and as a lecturer and teacher, Flynn has given thousands of performances and readings across the United States and Western Europe. In the past 15 months, Flynn has made over 165 appearances, teaching workshops for Universities and Writer’s Groups across the country. In 1996, second editions of his first two books were published and Flynn was awarded the Paumanok Poetry Prize. Both books are now in their third printing. His last collection, The Lost Sea, made several critic’s Top Ten Lists for 2000 and was a runner-up for the Oscar Arnold Young Book Prize from the NC Poetry Society. Flynn has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Flynn is also founder and managing editor of Asheville Poetry Review, a biannual literary journal that publishes 160–200 pages of poems, interviews, translations, essays, historical perspectives and book reviews. Since its inception, Asheville Poetry Review has published over 600 new and established writers from 14 different countries, including Robert Bly, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joy Harjo, Gary Snyder, Sherman Alexie, Eavan Boland, R. S. Thomas, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Fred Chappell, Ciaran Carson and Colette Inez. From its first regional issue, Asheville Poetry Review has grown into an international publication with distribution in 35 states and 5 European countries. Flynn lives in Marshall, NC with his wife, Aimee, in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains.