. . . . . "] Perrotta enjoyed reading authors such as O. Henry, J. R. R. Tolkien, and John Irving, and decided early in his life that he wanted to be a writer.[4] He was involved in his high school literary magazine, Pariah, for which he wrote several short stories.[5] Perrotta earned a B.A. in English from Yale University in 1983,[2] and then received an M.A. in English/Creative Writing from Syracuse Univer" .