Wenjing

Born to a working-class family, Robert Iman grew up in 1970s and ’80s Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of a steel worker and only child to Robert and Shirley Iman. At the start of the Persian Gulf War, he enlisted in the US Navy, trained as a Navy Hospital Corpsman, and served with the US Marines in Operation Restore Hope and at the Balboa Naval Medical Center in San Diego, California.

After an Honorable Discharge in 1994, Bob stayed in San Diego. Facing economic hardship, he was temporarily homeless, but after finding work and residence, pursued his longtime dream: college. In 1999, at the age of 31, he began attending classes at San Diego City College, where in 2001 he received an Associates Degree in English, and a second in Behavioral Science, graduating Phi Theta Kappa. That year, he was accepted into the screenwriting program at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts where he received both a BFA in Filmic Writing and a BA in Sociology, graduating Magna Cum Laude in 2005.

Struggling to find a spot in the entertainment industry, Bob found himself without a home in 2006. He worked as a dishwasher in a homeless shelter where he was staying, and there began to write DRV. The book was completed, many drafts later, in 2007. An unknown writer in the midst of the Great Recession, and so not finding an agent or publisher easily, Bob dedicated himself instead to five years of working with the impoverished and homeless. His background in the service led to a variety of security posts, most interesting of which was the graveyard shift at a shelter for homeless mothers and their children in South Central Los Angeles. Emotionally and physically demanding, the work nevertheless provided great purpose. In 2012, he moved to Las Vegas, where he currently advocates for the veteran and homeless communities, and continues writing novels and screenplays.