Juan Pablo Villalobos was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, in 1973, and grew up in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco. He has a degree in Hispanic Language and Literature from the Universidad Veracruzana. (He also graduated in Administration and Marketing, an activity he left to devote himself to literature.) His undergraduate thesis was devoted to literary genres and representation in the memoirs of Fray Servando Teresa de Mier.