Jim Gullo

Jim Gullo thought writing was a very cool thing to do starting in high school, where he would write normal articles for the school newspaper and then write savage parodies of the same articles to amuse and entertain himself and his friends.

He has preferred the funny version of the story ever since.

He studied journalism and creative writing at the University of Arizona, moved to New York City for a brief stint at New York Magazine, and then quit to pick grapes in France and have adventures in Europe for a year. This set the stage for a long career as a funny travel writer and journalist, writing articles for many magazines while doing outlandish things like scuba-diving with 100s of sharks in French Polynesia, hanging out and dining with sumo wrestlers in Tokyo, pretending to be a P.G. Wodehouse character named Armitage Shanks while playing golf in Scotland, and eating his way through the great pastry shops of Paris. His work appeared in many great publications, including Premiere, Islands, Bon Appetit, Saveur, Sports Illustrated and Diversion. He had a blast, visited 37 countries on assignment and gained 400 pounds.

Then he turned to books, writing fun guidebooks to Seattle and Portland, a couple of histories for middle-school readers, the as-told-to autobiography of Charlie Sifford (who was the first African-American pro golfer), a memoir about teaching baseball to his son Joe, a comic novel about coming to terms with the death of a parent, and most recently, GROUCH BAG, a historical novel that imagines the youthful Marx Brothers in New York City of 1908, just before they turned to comedy. While writing books, he lost the 400 pounds and grew a beard that turned white.

Jim now lives in McMinnville, Oregon with two of his three sons (his oldest son, Michael Gullo, is a singer and producer in New York City), his most-excellent wife Kris, a Golden Retriever named Louis and a rabbit named Fat Boy who is pure dynamite. He bakes like a demon, turning out breads, tarts, pies, cakes and French things with funny names. He plays ping-pong. He should go on more walks. He loves to travel, still. He's well on the way to regaining the 400 pounds.

Have fun, laugh a lot, follow your interests, and when in doubt, better make that six hard-boiled eggs. Jim invites comments, jokes and wry, offhand comments sent to him at jim (at) jim-gullo (dot) com. Thanks for reading his books!