Simon A. Smith was born and raised in the small town of Annville, Pennsylvania.  In the summer of 1999 he moved to Chicago, Illinois where he currently lives in the Lincoln Square district on the northwest side with his girlfriend, an orange tabby cat named Cheever, lots of maps, various Talking Heads memorabilia, and a framed portrait of Fyodor Dostoevsky.  In 2003 Simon graduated with a B.A. in fiction writing from Columbia College, Chicago.  Since that time he has been working as a writer/reporter for Chicago Public Radio.  Eight years in Chicago has taught Simon that bicycles are the best mode of transportation, thrift stores provide a major civil service, and that ignorance is never a sufficient excuse.  Simon’s fiction has appeared in Look-Look Magazine, Storyglossia, Insolent Rudder, Fume Magazine, Glasshouse Magazine, The Columbia Chronicle, and The Banana King. His essays, interviews, reports and other doodles have been published by NewCity, The Chicago Reader, and Chicago Public Radio’s Eight Forty-Eight and Hello Beautiful programs.  When it comes to his taste in writing and reading, Simon prefers serious, realistic literary fiction.  His biggest influences include: Richard Yates, Tennessee Williams, Raymond Carver, Joy Williams and J.D. Salinger.  Right now, Simon is working very hard to complete his first novel, Escape From Dreamland .  He’d like to thank you for stopping by.