Steve Almond was raised in Palo Alto, California, a.k.a 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. His work has appeared in numerous literary and other magazines. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, and teaches creative writing at Boston College. Steve Almond's second book, My Life in Heavy Metal, was published in April by Grove Press. Also this year, he won a Pushcart Prize and he was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in Fiction.