Sandy McIntosh was born in Rockville Centre, New York, and received a BA from Southampton College, an MFA from Columbia University and a doctorate from the Union Graduate School. After working with children for eight years as a writer in the schools he completed a study of writers who taught in the program and how their work with children affected their own writing. He alternated teaching creative writing at Southampton College and Hofstra University with publishing nonfiction works, such as Firing Back (John Wiley 1997), and computer software, such as Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing! (Electronic Arts, 1986). For several years he contributed journalism, poetry, and opinion columns to The New York Times, Newsday, The Nation, The Wall Street Journal, American Book Review, and elsewhere. His original poetry in a screenplay won the Silver Medal in the Film Festival of the Americas. His collaboration with Denise Duhamel appears in The Best American Poetry. He has been managing editor of Long Island University's national literary journal, Confrontation, and is publisher of Marsh Hawk Press.