Keith Kachtick grew up in Texas, attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and now lives in New York City. His writing has appeared in a number of publications, including "Esquire, Texas Monthly, " the "Missouri Review, " and the "New York Times Magazine." He is senior instructor of the Lineage Project, a nonprofit, Dharma-based organization that runs meditation classes in youth prisons in Harlem, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.