S.P. Somtow has assembled a collection of essays, poems, and fiction, and tells all about his first published poem from 1967, which earned a lengthy shelf life when it was used as the epigraph for a best-selling autobiography by Shirley MacLaine, to his first professional fiction sale in 1977, to stories that won major awards like the World Fantasy Award. Here, also, are some of his acerbic commentaries from Thai and U.S. magazines, which rarely shied away from controversial subjects. S.P. Somtow's fiftieth book celebrates a lifetime of achievement as the internationally acclaimed author of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry "the most wellknown expatriate Thai in the world" - International Herald Tribune