STEVE ALMOND spent seven years as a journalist in Texas and Florida before writing his first book, the short story collection My Life in Heavy Metal. His nonfiction book, Candyfreak, was a New York Times bestseller, a Booksense Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year, and an American Library Association Alex Award winner. His short fiction has been included in The Best American Short Stories and Pushcart Prize anthologies, and he writes commentary and journalism regularly for The New York Times Magazine. A former sports reporter and play-by-play man, Almond lives outside Boston with his wife and three children.