Steve Almond spent seven years as a newspaper reporter in Texas and Florida before writing his first book, My Life in Heavy Metal. His nonfiction book, Candyfreak, was a New York Times Bestseller, and his story collection, God Bless America, published by Lookout Books in 2011, won the Paterson Prize for Fiction. He has also written previous story collections, novels, and nonfiction books, the most recent of which is Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto. His fiction has appeared in Playboy, Tin House, Zoetrope, Ploughshares, Ecotone, and elsewhere, and has been reprinted in Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize. He lives outside Boston.