Paul Volponi is a writer, journalist, and teacher living in New York City. From 1992 to 1998, he taught incarcerated teens on Rikers Island to read and write. This experience formed the basis of Black and White and Rikers High. From 1999 to 2005, Mr. Volponi taught teens in a drug-treatment program. The experience inspired him to write Rooftop. Mr. Volponi is also the author of Rucker Park Setup, Hurricane Song, and Response. An ardent street ball player, Mr. Volponi draws upon his more than four decades of New York City court-sense to write The Final Four.