DAVID MIZNER was born in Waterville, Maine and lived there until he went to college at Tufts. After going to the Columbia University School of Journalism, he went to Los Angeles and volunteered full-time on the Barbara Boxer for Senate Campaign, where the higher-ups at first feared that he was a spy. His first real job was with People for the American Way in DC, which paid him to watch Pat Robertson everyday. At PFAW, he also was the research director of a well intentioned but ill-fated campaign to ask presidential candidates tough questions during the Iowa caucuses. He has also worked for the Vera Institute of Justice and Human Rights First. He still works for Human Rights First sometimes. (Promotional materials for his novels tend to exaggerate his political experience; most of the impressive-sounding stuff -- speeches and press releases and such -- he did for non-profits, not politicians.) He has written for one large publication, the Los Angeles Times, and several smaller ones, including Prison Life and Church and State. He started writing fiction in 1998. His first novel, Political Animal, came out in 2004. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, Miri Navasky, and their son, Milo.