WALKING was composed over several years, while physically moving (literally walking). Most of it was completed in South Saint Louis, where he lives and works as a bartender. WALKING is informed by psychogeography, surrealism, contemporary classical/electronic music, Taoism, alchemy, modern abstract art, the tradition of the anti-epic, and much else besides. Having completed WALKING, Hurley is now working on a collection of very short poems entitled fragments, a prose poem called InSoluble, and four connected pieces inspired by music and combining lineated verse with prose poetry called Quartet. Patrick Hurley was born in Springfield, Illinois in 1969. He studied economics and political science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He holds a Ph.D. in English from Saint Louis University. He taught writing and literature courses as an adjunct at Saint Louis University, Washington University, and other area schools for nearly two decades. Having published a book on Thomas Pynchon and having written about cocktails for the Riverfront Times for a year, he now focuses on his poetry. You can find some of his recent work at www.patrickhurleypoet.com