Introducing Tom Batten

On March 27, we'll be running a brand new story, "What do we have in our pockets?" by the great young Israeli writer Etgar Keret. Some of you might know Etgar and his work from his appearances on This American Life. And you'll know him even better soon, via not just the aforementioned story, but also a "2 or 3 questions" interview we'll be running next week.

Whence our good fortune? Etgar comes to us, as it were, courtesy the hard work of Tom Batten, our editorial intern. Tom's been hard at work for a while now - you've read, we hope, his December interview with Chuck Palahniuk. But who is he? you've no doubt been asking yourself. Well, aside from being the guy in the photo up top:

"Born in New York, raised in Yorktown, Virginia, I am currently an MFA student in Richmond, VA. I don't have any pets but I do sometimes stroke my roommate and occassionally, when he's up for it, he purrs. I enjoy hoarding things and hope to one day have enough money to be considered eccentric instead of weird. I hate goofy bios and I'm crippled with self loathing."

And that's that. Of course he speaks mostly through his work. And a good thing, that. Look for more from Tom, soon, here.