All About John
This spring I was a quarterfinalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award for my second novel, Dodging and Burning, a murder mystery that explores the truth behind the photograph of a crime scene taken by a young war photographer, and its connection to the complex discriminatory attitudes toward homosexuals during the 1940s. I graduated with my BA from Davidson College, MA in literature from Bread Loaf School of English, and a MFA in fiction from GMU, where I served as Executive Editor of Phoebe. Currently, I teach English to sophomores, juniors, and seniors at Flint Hill, a college preparatory school, outside of Washington, DC.
more about John
1. I don't think reason and emotion are mutually exclusive; however, to work together, they must respect one another.
2. Sometimes when I'm running outside, I pretend that I'm being chased.
3. When I was young, my Great Aunt Margaret wanted me to be a painter. Instead I decided to become a writer who writes about visual artists.
4. I love film scores, because I can pretend that I'm in a movie, and even if it's a scary movie, it can be SO much better than reality.
5. My favorite writers are all women and (possibly) gay men--Iris Murdoch, Margaret Atwood, Somerset Maugham, Shakespeare ... My favorite writer is a (possibly) gay woman--Virginia Woolf.
6. I believe family is about love rather than blood relations. Families are those persons who we love and who love us.
7. I teach high school sophomores and seniors. I derive a great amount of hope and inspiration from my occupation, but I'm rarely as happy as when I'm alone writing.
8. I deeply respect Emerson's writings. Spiritually speaking, I'm something of a Transcendentalist, but with my own twist.
9. In social situations the first deadly sin is to be boring; the second is to be a bad listener; and the third is to be too easily bored. (Really they're all the same sin.)
10. I'm obsessed with the way that visual media of all kinds skews our perception of reality, that nothing is as it seems.
Contest Reviews of Dodging and Burning
"As I read the first page, I was practically holding my breath hoping that the narrative would continue to be as strong throughout as the opening and it was. The writing is descriptive but restrained, reaching that magical balance between drawing pictures in the readers mind without overloading it with too much detail ... Absolutely elegant and competitive with many novels already published. Beautiful writing by a very talented writer. I would love to read more by this author even if he doesnt win the ABNA. " --Amazon Expert Reviewer
"The story unfolds in both eras, compellingly, to find out. The author deftly brings a rural wartime community to life."--Publishers Weekly
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