Chet Williamson (born 19 June 1948) is the author of nearly twenty books and over a hundred short stories published in The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire, and many other magazines and anthologies. He was born in 1948 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania, receiving a B.S. in 1970, and went on to be a teacher at public schools in Cleveland, Ohio, then he became a professional actor before becoming a freelance writer in 1986. His earlier novels include Second Chance, an ecological thriller/romance, Ash Wednesday, Reign and Dreamthorp. His story, "Gandhi at the Bat", was recently made into a short film by Stephanie Argy and Alec Boehm. Figures in Rain, a collection of Williamson's short stories, won the International Horror Guild Award. He has been shortlisted twice for the World Fantasy Award, six times for the Horror Writers Association's Bram Stoker Award, and once for the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award. His books have been translated and published in many languages and countries, including France, Germany, Russia, Italy and Japan. Williamson's most recent work has been in the field of theatre, and a ghost story/psychological thriller, "Revenant," was recently produced at Theater of the Seventh Sister in Lancaster PA. From 2001 to 2007, he was the lead singer and guitarist for the Irish duo Fire in the Glen, in which he was partnered with fiddler and bodhranist Tom Knapp. A lifelong member of Actors' Equity Association, he recently resumed his acting career, and has performed in plays and musicals at Lancaster's Fulton Opera House and Theater of the Seventh Sister. In 2010 he began recording performances of Andrew Vachss's short stories, as well as some of his own, for the MPformance.com website (www.MPformance.com).