Terrence Crimmins was the youngest of nine in an Irish Catholic family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he rooted for the Pirates and the Steelers. He continued his Catholic education at Boston College, where he also learned to drink beer and play rugby, and received Bachelors and Masters degrees. Crimmins has done newspaper work, online columns, published in a scholarly journal, optioned a screenplay for a biographical picture, and taught history in Baltimore, Maryland, for a number of years. He is now relaxing back in Pittsburgh, and writing short stories and an novels about the comedy and the drama of the American experience.