I live a hermit's life in downtown Atlanta with my wife Dawn Aquamarine Aura and a steadily increasing number of animals. On weekdays I work as assistant catalog editor and recycling coordinator at New Leaf Distributing Co., a book wholesaler specializing in spiritual, holistic and transformational literature. In my spare time, between operating a neglected bumper sticker business and volunteering for various causes, I sometimes write. Every so often I get around to publishing my work, mostly essays in local Atlanta publications.

Raised in Southeast Asia, the son of Methodist missionaries, I earned a B.A. in English Composition from Beloit College, class of 1978 (but am now the only member of my immediate family without a masters degree). I spent my post-college years on the road instead, perfecting the mystical art of hitchhiking and keeping my overhead down. In 1990, I married Dawn and settled in Atlanta. In 1993 we bought a 90-year-old house near the Lake Claire Community Land Trust, a wonderful community greenspace owned and maintained by a non-profit corporation started by our neighbors.

During my years on the road I published an annual chapbook of poems to give away as I traveled. The best of these were collected in Four-Wheeler & Two-Legged: Poems (Southeastern Front, 1992), now out of print. I am also the author of Crossing the Expressway: Poems from the Open Road (Dolphins & Orchids, 2001), chronicling my 100,000-mile hitchhiking career; In the Presence of the Disappeared (self-published chapbook, 2003), an epic poem about my experience on a peace delegation to Colombia, South America; Proof of the Miraculous: Campfire Poetry from the Rainbow Gathering, a poetic record of 25 years of Rainbow Gatherings (noncommercial, available only on this website); and Washed in the Hurricane, an unpublished poetry collection (still looking for a publisher). Several dozen of my poems have also seen print in local, regional and national periodicals. Two of them are featured in a recent anthology of anti-war poems, The Other Side of Sorrow, and I perform regularly at peace demonstrations.

My prose works include Last Testament: A Melodrama of the Post-Petroleum Era, an epic novel about the future (published for the first time in installments on this website) and numerous published articles and essays (click here for a sampling). Over the years I have edited or co-edited six different publications as a volunteer, where many of my "activist journalism" pieces have appeared. Four times a year, I help to organize inter-faith celebrations of the Solstices and Equinoxes in Atlanta.

I am also the creator of over 150 bumper sticker designs, all but a handful of my own invention, under the name Gaia-Love Graffiti— a name inspired by innumerable freeway bridges decorated in spray-paint by the romantically smitten. Most of my stickers and mini-stickers echo the themes of my essays and poetry. They are available to view and purchase at www.gaialovegraffiti.com.

In January 2006, at age 49, I was diagnosed with cancer at the base of my tongue. I elected to undergo both conventional and alternative treatments simultaneously. With the prayers and support of family and friends around the world, I survived not only the disease but radiation and chemotherapy. My post-treatment CAT scans and blood tests have been pronounced "normal." During this time I completed the first draft of a short novel, Free Ralph! An Evolutionary Fable, which is to published in the fall of 2007 by Wind Eagle Press.

Hoping to bring a poetic vision of the Earth to schools and community groups, I am available for performances of "Earth Poetry with Stephen Wing," celebrating the magnificence of our home planet while warning of the dangerous impact of our way of life. A founding member of Atlanta Peace Poets, I also offers readings on peace and justice themes, as well as a full-spectrum, all-around poetry reading that encompasses these themes and more. Fees are negotiable, and in many cases optional, but outside Atlanta, travel expenses are a must.

Contact me at swing@stephenwing.com for more information on my writings or to book a performance.

photo: David Christian Glueck (1990)