Craig Blais was born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts. His poems have appeared in such literary journals as Bellingham Review, Best New Poets, Hayden's Ferry Review, The Pinch, Sentence, and Spoon River Poetry Review. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida.

• Acknowledgments I. The Lost TownAbout CrowsHuffersMy Sister at the AirportRobert Frost in the SlaughterhouseSuburban MythopoeticsAn Alternate History of Enfield, Mass.When I Opened the Anthology of Poets OppressedThe Fall of CommunismThe History of Hockey in My TownFive Memories of Motion II. The Beverly Hills of Korea (Or, My Life in the Love Motel)The Rise of CommunismThe Beverly Hills of KoreaAll the Signs Read ?????A RiverThe Mongolia Room III. The Error GallerySelf-Portrait with Seven Fingers IMidwinter Rains over Montréal: A Video InstallationSelf-Portrait with Seven Fingers IISummertime (1943)Scenes from a Village: A TriptychOrizuruAfter We Disembark and Spend the Day on the Island while the Ship's Repaired, I Board Alone, Flip through a Chinese Restaurant Calendar, and Write Three Poems to Express My FeelingsSelf-Portrait with Seven Fingers IIIThe Madonna and Child with St. AnneSelf-Portrait in ShockThe Last Painting IV. The Cult PoemThe Cult Poem Notes

"Craig Blais is a tremendous talent. About Crows is a tremendous debut."—Terrance Hayes, Felix Pollak Prize judge and National Book Award winner|"These haunting, elegant poems are painted with smoke and the colors of the evening sky, and I feel as though I'm peering into rather than merely reading them. Each promises that something is about to happen; the tension they create is irresistible, and as I turn the pages, I find myself drumming my fingers in anticipation and thinking, 'More, please—more.'"—David Kirby