Stephen Hawley Martin is a professional writer and the only three-time winner of the Writer's Digest Book Award, having won first prize twice for fiction and once for nonfiction. He also has won a first prize for visionary fiction from Independent Publisher and a first prize for nonfiction from USA Book News. He has written 16 published books and is a former principal of the world-renowned ad firm, The Martin Agency (GEICO, Wal-Mart, ExxonMobil), which in 2009 was named by ADWEEK magazine the premier ad agency in the United States.