Adam Bessie is an Oakland, CA based essayist and an assistant professor of English at Diablo Valley College, just north of San Francisco. When not reading student essays, Adam writes his own, on education, language, culture, politics, travel, and music. In a frightening sign of the times, Adam won an award for an essay he published in a peer-reviewed academic journal on teaching comic books to college students. Adam also has a less “comic” scholarly interest in metaphor and thought, publishing his master’s thesis, and an upcoming journal article on the subject. Before his academic career, Adam worked as a music journalist, an intern for broadcaster Peter B. Collins, a substitute teacher, and a one time theatre producer for an award-winning comedic Fringe Festival play with “Sperm” and “War” in the title, though neither were in it, thankfully.