The Author: David Kinney

I live outside Philadelphia in Haddonfield, N.J., with my two children and my wife, Monica Yant Kinney,  metro columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. This is my first book.

I’ve fished for tarpon in Islamorada and Atlantic salmon in Ireland, for rainbow trout in Montana and brown trout in central Pennsylvania, for striped bass on the Jersey Shore and freshwater bass in my hometown of Winston-Salem, N.C. After spending some time with the ardent anglers of Martha’s Vineyard, however, I’m fairly certain I rank among the 90 percent of fishermen who catch 10 percent of the fish. I’m working to change that.

I spent the early years of my working career at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Associated Press, where I wrote about all kinds of things: bank mergers and murder trials and big-time college football. Later, I moved onto the Newark Star-Ledger for a four-year tour of duty covering the state’s notoriously bare-knuckled political scene, after which I left newspapering for something on the opposite spectrum: taking care of my daughter, then seven months old.

In my final weeks on the job, I had the very good fortune of contributing to the Ledger’s Pulitzer-Prize winning reporting on the resignation of Gov. Jim McGreevey.

Over the years, I’ve seen my work published in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and USA Today, not to mention the Lock Haven Express and the Leader-Post in Saskatchewan.