Michael Beil grew up in rural Ohio , where he learned to milk cows and other important lessons. He was a sailor, sailmaker and lawyer before finding his true calling in 1997: Teacher. Since 2001, he has taught English and drama at an all-girls Catholic high school in Manhattan, where he also wrote and produced Aftershocks, a play based on the challenges facing the immigrant families of some of his students. He lives in New York with his wife and their animals, dog Isabel and cats Cyril and Emma, and his complete collection of the Harvard Classics. The Red Blazer Girls and the Ring of Rocamadour (Fall 2008, Knopf) is his first novel.