Paul Shepherd is a graduate of the UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC-Greensboro creative writing programs, and earned a PhD with Distinction from Florida State University, where he was a Kingsbury Fellow and is currently a Writer in Residence. He has also written a book of poetry. His work has appeared in numerous magazines, including Prairie Schooner, Omni, Portland Review, The Quarterly, Fiction, and St. Anthony Messenger. His community service activities include serving as Executive Director of Rainbow Rehab, a nonprofit construction company that rehabs older homes for sale to low-income homeowners, working as staff Youth Director at St. Stephen Lutheran Church, and helping found the House of Mercy, an AIDS hospice in Belmont, North Carolina. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife Lois, and children Max, Summer, and Charlie.