Born: Feb. 21, 1962. Grew up in a mobile home in Burbank, Wash., and on his grandparents' cattle ranch in eastern Washington.
Correct pronunciation of his last name: "PAULA-nick."
College: Graduated in 1986 with a journalism degree from University of Oregon.
Main job before full-time writing: Diesel truck mechanic.
Web: Run since 1999 by Dennis Widmyer, the fan site www.chuckpalahniuk.net (aka "The Cult") has had 1.6 million unique visits in the past year, about half of them from outside the United States. A new break-off website (www.litreactor.com) is more focused on writing and online writing instruction.
Twitter: He has 377,000 followers @chuckpalahniuk but has "never Tweeted in my life."
Relationship status: Palahniuk, who is gay, has been with his partner for 17 years.
Fame: "Fight Club" has been joked about on "The Simpsons" and parodied on "Saturday Night Live."
His own favorite among his 12 novels: "Pygmy."
