The son of poets Donald Finkel and Constance Urdang, TOM FINKEL was born and raised in St. Louis. He worked as a writer and editor at the Miami New Times from 1989 through 1997, then rejoined the paper as editor-in-chief in 2019. In between, he was editor-in-chief at City Pages in Minneapolis, the Riverfront Times in St. Louis, and The Village Voice in New York. Finkel’s writing has earned accolades that include a National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence Award for investigative reporting and the Henfield Foundation Fiction Award. Before he stumbled into journalism, Finkel’s résumé included stints processing salmon in Anchorage, Alaska; assembling mobile homes in Austin, Texas; roofing, drywalling and painting in St. Louis; and tending bar in Providence, Rhode Island.