James Twiggs was born in Missouri and raised in Arkansas. After a stint in the Navy, he studied philosophy at the University of Arkansas and at Cornell University. He then worked as philosophy editor at Cornell University Press for fifteen years before returning to Fayetteville in 1980. Besides writing, his serious interests include photography, jazz, and Wittgenstein. He was awarded the 1990 Porter Prize for his novel Transferences, which was published by the University of Arkansas Press. His screenplay of the novel was bought by Taz Pictures and is currently in development. An earlier work, Billy and Betty, published by Grove Press in 1968, was described by one reviewer as "the sexiest book in all of modern fiction . . . It certainly is one of the funniest." Along with Ladies' Men, Twiggs is also writing a comic novella about the scandalous goings-on at a summer program for gifted and talented high-school students.