Descendant of Sicilian immigrants—high-rise beam‑walkers, barkeeps, radio-news anchors, fashion designers, herb-farmers, restaurateurs, and civil engineers--Vincent Joseph Noto was raised at the northern end of the San Joaquin Valley of California—near the part Joan Didion dubbed “somewhere else” and which George Lucas over‑romanticized in _American Graffiti_. Noto studied poetry with Pulitzer Prize winner and Poet Laureate of the United States, Philip Levine and with C. G. Hanslicek at CSU Fresno. While there he also studied film with Dr. Michael G. Tate. Noto has managed new and used bookstores, and taught in Central and Southern California public high schools. Since 1993, Noto has lived in Fresno,Anaheim,Long Beach, California. About a year ago he moved to the Portland-Beaverton area of Oregon with his ever-reading librarian fiancée, Melissa. He writes poetry, creative non-fiction, fiction, and film studies/criticism. He enjoys nature walks, engages in autodidactic inquiries, and scribbles into a panoptic book about archetypes in literature and film.