Bill Barich has lived in Northern California for most of his life. His first book, Laughing in the Hills, a classic account of racetrack life, was hailed by Sports Illustrated as one of the 100 best sports books of all-time and was serialized in The New Yorker, where Barich was a staff writer for many years, contributing both fiction and non-fiction. His honours include a Guggenheim Fellowship and inclusion in Best American Short Stories. He is a Literary Laureate of the San Francisco Public Library and currently resides in Dublin.