About the Author

Cartoonist Mike Twohy has been a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine for over three decades. He has also drawn cartoons for a wide variety of other publications (from Ranger Rick to The National Law Journal) and created a syndicated panel, That's Life, which found humor in everyday situations. The most recent of several books he has illustrated is titled Teaching Opera, the Role of the Opera Workshop, a project close to his heart since his wife, Linda, is a violinist in the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and he became an opera fan years ago. A compulsive doodler from an early age, Mike's career actually began when, as a kid growing up in Northern California, he wrote and illustrated a neighborhood newspaper complete with full comics page, each strip drawn in a different style. In high school he drew a weekly sports cartoon for The Palo Alto Times and later, while majoring in art at San Jose State University, worked as an illustrator of math and reading workbooks. He went on to earn an M.F.A. degree in painting from the University of California at Berkeley with the intention of continuing to paint and possibly teach, but became addicted to freelancing after selling his first cartoons to magazines. Mike became an avid storyteller when his children were young, entertaining them nightly with bedtime stories and daily with "funky chicken" lunchbox cartoons. His first picture book is scheduled to be released by Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster in the Spring of 2011 and is about a shy pig named Poindexter who likes to read. He lives in Berkeley, California with his wife, cat, and Newfoundland.