Thatcher Heldring grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where he taught himself to write and play basketball—not at the same time, though. After college, he moved to New York City, where he played softball during the summers and indoor soccer year-round. In his spare time, he held down several jobs in book publishing. In his lifetime, he has also worked as a grocery bagger, a ditch digger, a shortstop, a small forward, a goalie, a scorekeeper, a coach, a rabid fan, and a benchwarmer. He and his wife, Staci, currently live in Seattle, a good place for indoor sports.

His debut as a fiction writer came in February 2006, when his short story "A Genius for Sauntering" appeared in the young-adult anthology Not Like I’m Jealous or Anything. His first novel, Toby Wheeler: Eighth Grade Benchwarmer (Delacorte) will be published in August 2007.