Nick Flynn (born 1960) is an American writer and poet. He was born and grew up in Scituate, Massachusetts, south of Boston. His parents divorced when he was young and his mother committed suicide when he was 22. He drifted through several jobs before starting work at a homeless shelter in Boston. It was there at age 27 that he met his estranged, homeless father for the first time. Nick Flynn earned an Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from New York University. Flynn's works have appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Fence, The New York Times, and The Paris Review. He has written two collections of poetry: Blind Huber and Some Ether. He also authored A Note Slipped Under the Door with Shirley McPhillips. His poem, "Bag of Mice", won the "Discovery"/The Nation Award in 1999 leading to the publication of his first book of poems, Some Ether. His first book of poems also won the inaugural PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award and was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize. "Bag of Mice" deals with his mother's suicide. In 2001, he won the Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship. Most recently he wrote Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, an account of his tumultuous early life and relationship with his father. He now teaches at The University of Houston Creative Writing Program. He has been dating actress Lili Taylor since 2004.
