Dave Eggers

Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is known for the bestselling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and for his subsequent work as a novelist and screenwriter. He is also the founder of McSweeneys, a literary journal the cofounder of the literacy project 826 Valencia, and a human rights nonprofit Voice of Witness, and the founder of ScholarMatch, a program that matches donors with students needing funds for college tuition. His writing has appeared in several magazines.

Eggers was born in Boston, Massachusetts, one of four siblings. His father was John K. Eggers , an attorney. His mother, Heidi McSweeney Eggers , was a school teacher. When Eggers was still a child, the family moved to the suburb of Lake Forest, near Chicago, where he attended high school and was a classmate of actor Vince Vaughn. Eggers attended the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, intending to get a degree in journalism. But, his studies were interrupted by the deaths of both of his parents in 19911992 his father in 1991 from brain and lung cancer, and his mother in January 1992 from stomach cancer. Both were in their 50s.

Source: Wikipedia