Jess Mowry was born in Mississippi in 1960 and raised by his father in Oakland, California. In 1988 he began writing stories for and about the street kids in his West Oakland neighborhood. One of his first stories, "One Way" [which appears above in a new version], was published by the San Francisco literary magazine, ZYZZYVA, in December of that year. His first book, Rats In The Trees, a collection of stories about Oakland kids, was published in 1990 and won the PEN Josephine Miles Award for Excellence In Literature. Since then he has had six novels published in eight languages, and his short stories have appeared in many anthologies, including Brotherman, In The Tradition, Cornerstones, The Pushcart Prize, and I Believe In Water, as well as in many magazines, including The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Obsidian II, and Buzz. In 1997, his second novel, Way Past Cool, was produced as a feature-length film. He continues to write novels and stories for and about young Black people, and also mentors young writers.