A native of tiny Andover, Connecticut, Howard has over the last 20 years has been a newspaper reporter, freelance writer, full-time magazine editor, and now author. Right out of college he worked as a reporter at a small daily covering the cop beat, but a turning point came in the late 1990s, when Howard signed on with a buddy looking for editorial help with his alternative biweekly newspaper, Connecticut's Waterbury Observer. There, Howard wrote magazine-length stories about all sorts of characters, and was hooked.In 1999 he moved down to New York City to launch into a full-time freelance writing career. At first, in an abject struggle for survival, Howard briefly held down a freelance fact-checking gig for Working Mother magazine and even considered an offer to write a guidebook to Manhattan strip clubs. But then things took off, and he began writing for national publications: Backpacker, Men's Journal, Outside, The New York Times, Travel + Leisure and the late, great National Geographic Adventure, to name a few. He hunted down stories in adventurous places like Nicaragua, Guatemala, Israel, Lebanon and Hungary. He wrote the New York City guidebook he was better suited for--about outdoor pursuits such as kayaking and rock climbing. In 2004, Howard landed a job as an editor at Backpacker, where, while learning how to light a campfire when all the wood is wet, he was part of a small team that won two National Magazine Awards--the first ever for that title. And that led, in 2008, to his current job at Bicycling.Lost Rights is his first book. It began with a call from his friend Charley Monagan at Connecticut Magazine in 2003, which makes this journey to publication a particularly long one: more than seven years in all. Howard traveled up and down the East Coast and out to the Midwest several times unraveling the story, wheedling and cajoling key sources over the course of several years for interviews. Most of them eventually agreed. For this, and for the many other interesting and serendipitous and enriching things that have happened, Howard is grateful. He lives in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.