RICHARD PRICE is the author of six previous novels, the most recent being Samaritan. Clockers was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has also written numerous screenplays, including Freedomland, Sea of Love, Ransom, and The Color of Money, for which he received an Academy Award nomination. He received a literature award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999, and he had an essay selected for Best American Essays 2002. His work has appeared in many publications, including the New York Times and The New Yorker, and he has taught fiction writing at Yale, NYU, and Columbia. He lives with his family in Manhattan.