Jobie Hughes was born in Renton, Washington, but raised from the age of three in the quaint and mostly blue-collar town of Spencer, Ohio. He was a high school state champion in wrestling, attended Ohio University on an athletic scholarship, and graduated with a business degree. After five years of banal work earning minimal pay, he left capitalism behind and moved to New York City to attend Columbia University's School of the Arts. He graduated in May 2009 with an MFA in Creative Writing. Hughes currently lives in Michigan. He is the author or two previous novels, both of which were #1 New York Times best sellers and have sold over a million copies worldwide. His work has been translated into twenty-six languages and published in forty-eight countries.