Steve Almond was raised in Palo Alto, California, aka The Town Where God Will Retire. He spent seven years as a newspaper reporter, mostly in El Paso and Miami. He has been writing fiction for the last eight years. Author of Candy Freak (Algonquin Books, 2004) and My Life in Heavy Metal (Grove Press, 2002), his work can also be found in a whole bunch of literary magazines, along with the occasional porn outlet. He lives in Somerville, MA, and teaches creative writing at Boston College.