Dave Eggers

After both his parents died from cancer within a five-week span, Dave Eggers dropped out of college in order to help raise his younger brother, then eight years old. His memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, details this experience and was followed by several novels, including The Circle. Eggers founded the publishing house McSweeney’s and its companion magazine, the tutoring program 826 National, and the college mentoring service ScholarMatch.