Stuart Christie was born in dry, grassy country off the eastern headlands of San Francisco bay. He spent summers as a child along the lake that waters the cherry, peach, and apricot orchards of the Okanagan country. He studied for a long time and paid for it, by landing boats and pumping fuel for Native and Anglo-European fishermen cornering salmon herds running northward to die in the arms of the Fraser. He lived in Portland, Santa Cruz, Paris, and Philadelphia before coming to Hong Kong where his greatest joys are those he has found and made here.