ROBERT CROOKE is a journalist, media executive, and teacher. His poetry has been published in the West Hills Review, the literary journal of the Walt Whitman Birthplace in Long Island, NY. He has lectured at Suffolk County Community College, the University of Nebraska, New York University, and the University of Connecticut. He began his career as a sports reporter and columnist for the Long Island Press and for 13 years served as North American press spokesman for Reuters, the international news group. Currently, he heads financial media relations for the US division of Makinson Cowell, a capital markets advisory firm, founded in 1989, which provides independent research and advice to a wide range of companies based primarily in Europe and North America. The Earth and Its Sorrows (2010) is his third novel. His two prior novels, American Family (2004) and Sunrise (2007), received generous critical praise. He and his wife reside in Bridgewater, Connecticut.