Author of the Marine Corps novel Maggot (Warner Books) and the short story collections Naked to Naked Goes (Scribner’s) and Loving Power (Bottom Dog), Robert Flanagan was born in Toledo, Ohio. He worked as a dishwasher, night watchman and janitor before serving in the Marine Corps Reserve and attending the University of Toledo and the University of Chicago. The cruel and beautiful sport of boxing has been his long-time passion. Taught the rudiments of the sport by his father, an ex-marine combat vet and amateur southpaw lightweight, he sparred ineptly at the YMCA in Toledo and boxed in a few platoon bouts at Camp Geiger from which he received two detached retinas. Retired from Ohio Wesleyan University, where he was Professor of English and director of creative writing, Flanagan at present is at work on a novel, Champions, and still works the peanut and heavy bags in his basement. He lives in Delaware, Ohio with his wife Katy.