Gary Tillery (also writing as G. G. Tillery) was born in Phoenix in 1947, the son of a millwright who had dropped out of school after the fourth grade to help on his family’s farm. Tillery returned to Arizona after service in Vietnam to earn a Bachelor’s degree in history and a Master’s in international business.

After two decades in the business world, Tillery turned his time and energy to creative endeavors. Based on his Vietnam experiences, he published a collection of interrelated short stories titled Darkling Plain (one took First Prize in a contest judged by Ray Bradbury), and authored a series of humorous novels featuring a soft-boiled detective known as “Monterey Jack.”

Quest Books published his spiritual biographies of John Lennon, George Harrison, and Elvis Presley. The first, The Cynical Idealist, was named Official Book of the 2010 John Lennon Tribute, and translated into German, French, and Portuguese. The latter, The Seeker King, was a featured book of the Patheos Book Club.

He has written three books of poetry, most notably The Ghosts of Wrigley Field—a book-length poem featuring his own illustrations.

Most recently, he is the author of Yeshua, My Beloved—a fact-based, exhaustively documented novel about the life of Jesus, and The Roots of the Wind—a novel that intertwines adventure, ideas, and love in an ill-fated expedition in the heart of Africa.

Tillery is also a professional sculptor. His most prominent work is the centerpiece for Chicago’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial. His sculpture They Also Serve is in the permanent collection of the National Veteran’s Art Museum, and he created the bronze bust of Steve Allen for the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood. He is a member of the Fine Art Studio of Rotblatt Amrany, for which he has executed a number of public sculptures on view across the country.