Damian Lopes, author of towards the quiet, is a Toronto writer, artist, editor, and bookseller who traces his roots to Britain, East Africa, India, and Portugal. He is the author of the visual collection, sensory de(p)rivation, and has recently completed his first novel, St. Anthony's Children. lopes was also the driving force behind Project X, a poetry multimedia website re-examining Vasco da Gama's 1497 voyage around Africa to South Asia. For more information, check out his Web site.