Mark Squires worked in the construction industry for 20 years before becoming a teacher at Pima High School in Pima, Arizona, where he taught English for 14 years. Currently, he is the principal at Pima Junior High. He has a Bachelors Degree in Education with majors in History and English, and he has a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership. He has been married to Nanette Haws Squires since 1979. They have four children and eight grandchildren.

For much of his life, Squires lived in East Mesa, Arizona, just a few miles from the Superstition Mountains that he often hiked. He read many of the documentary-style books about the fabled Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine, which eventually led to the writing of the novel The Dutchman.

Before acquiring a permanent teaching job, Squires was a substitute teacher for several school districts, and met a variety of teachers, some of whom were burnt out and miserable. This spawned the idea for a story about the anti-teacher who hates his students, and the only experience that can change him is coaching a junior high track team with a wild mentally-disabled boy. The result is The Great Teeth of the Young Lions, a novel that confronts the challenges of just being a teacher.

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