Dan Shields was born and raised in Middletown, Pennsylvania. His writing has appeared in The Normal School, New Delta Review, Cleaver, and others. He is an alumnus of the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. In former lives, he was a college athlete, library aide, meal prep worker, Bed Bath and Beyond customer service representative, and Atlantic City Beach Olympics push up champion. He now lives in Washington, DC, reminiscing about all of it.