Bill Barich is the author of seven books, including Laughing in the Hills, named one of the hundred best sports books of all time. Other works include a novel, Carson Valley, and most recently a work of nonfiction, A Fine Place to Daydream: Racehorses, Romance, and the Irish. His new book, A Pint of Plain (Bloomsbury/Walker, 2009), is about the decline of the traditional Irish pub. A Guggenheim Fellow, and literary laureate of the San Francisco Public Library, Barich now lives and works in Dublin.