E. Martin Pedersen was born in Berkeley, California, and grew up in San Francisco and other towns in northern California. He is a poet, fiction writer, singer-songwriter, and teacher of English for forty years at the University of Messina. After grad school, Martin left San Francisco, red backpack on his shoulder, and went to see the world, ending up in Messina, Sicily, where he still lives. He has degrees from the University of the Pacific (Education), San Francisco State University (Creative Arts), and San Jose State University (Master of Arts in Independent Studies). His academic work earned him the EdPress Feature Award in 1997. His over-250 published poems and short stories have appeared in 140 journals in 17 countries. One haiku was nominated for the Touchstone Awards. One was given the Best Haiku Award from cattails. Martin was Poet of the Week for Poetry Superhighway (twice) and is an alumnus of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. In his free time, Martin enjoys playing the gourd banjo and ukulele, following baseball, and, in summers, taking long walks on the Pacific Crest Trail.