John Grogan is a former columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the author of the #1 national best-seller Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog.

A native of Detroit and a graduate of Central Michigan University, Grogan wrote for the campus newspaper while slugging away at a double major in journalism and English. His first full-time writing job came immediately upon graduation in 1979 when he was hired as a police reporter for the Herald-Palladium in the Michigan harbor town of St. Joseph. In 1985, he won a fellowship into the Kiplinger Mid-Career Program in Public Affairs Reporting at The Ohio State University. After earning his master’s degree at OSU, he had the good fortune of landing a second fellowship at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a journalism think tank in St. Petersburg, Florida. Shortly thereafter, Grogan took a job at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale where he worked for more than a decade—first as a bureau reporter, then as projects writer, and eventually a metropolitan columnist who occasionally entertained readers with hilarious tales of his hairy, slobbery, lug of a best friend, Marley. He spent more than three years at Rodale as editor in chief of Organic Gardening magazine. His writing has won numerous awards, including the National Press Club’s Consumer Journalism Award.

In his first book, Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog, Grogan recounts the hilarious and heartfelt moments of his thirteen years with a loopy Labrador retriever. The instant best-seller has captured the hearts of millions and has reached the top of every chart in the U.S., including the #1 spot on The New York Times Best-Seller list for four months. Grogan and the book have been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, People, Newsweek, Life, and Better Homes & Garden, and on Good Morning America, The Early Show and Fox & Friends. It is being translated into more than two dozen languages around the world. FOX 2000 purchased dramatic rights, with Gil Netter (My Best Friend’s Wedding, Fever Pitch, Flicka) attached to produce a feature film.

In spring 2007, Grogan released Bad Dog, Marley! a children’s picture book based on Marley’s comical antics, and a young adult version of Marley & Me titled Marley: A Dog Like No Other. He is currently working on a new memoir that mines his childhood and complicated relationship with his father in a universal story of one man’s journey to break free of his parents, discover a life of his own, and find his way back home before it’s too late.

John Grogan lives on a wooded hillside in Pennsylvania with his wife, Jenny, and their three children.