Benjamin Norman Pierce was born in Denver, Colorado at 4 degrees of Virgo, Scorpio Ascending, in 1962, moving to Wausau, Wisconsin on his 2nd birthday and leaving on his 23rd. He has been a professional dish-washer for 15 years, a trade he entered in the process of earning BA’s in philosophy, history, and creative writing from the University of Minnesota, Saint Cloud, in 1989. He lived in Sophia, Bulgaria for two and a half years, teaching history at First English Language Gymnasium of Sophia, participating in the expatriate writing circles there, and taking time to learn painting. He currently resides in Nottingham, a co-operatively owned house in Madison, Wisconsin, and is a frequent participant at open-mike readings.