Stephen G. Bloom worked as a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, San Jose Mercury-News, and Sacramento Bee before becoming a professor at the University of Iowa. The author of six award-winning nonfiction books, including Postville; The Oxford Project; The Audacity of Inez Burns; Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes; and Tears of Mermaids. A former reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Dallas Morning News, he is professor of journalism at the University of Iowa.