Bestselling author, John Grogan, was born on March 20, 1957 in Detroit, Michigan. He majored in journalism and English at Central Michigan University. In 1985, Grogan won a fellowship into the Kiplinger Mid-Career Program in Public Affairs Reporting at Ohio State University, where he obtained his Masters degree. Grogan earned a second fellowship at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Florida. Grogan's first full-time writing job was as a police reporter for the Herald-Palladium in Michigan. Grogan has also written for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and was also editor of Rodale's Organic Gardening magazine.

Grogan's book, Marley and Me, spent over seventy-six weeks on the bestseller list and was made into a movie in 2008. Grogan and his wife, Jenny, live in rural Pennsylvania.