John Vernon is the author of eleven books, including six novels, a memoir, a book of poems, and several books of criticism.  He was born and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the youngest son of Elijah and Ruth Vernon. The first member of his family to go to college, he received a B.A. at Boston College and an M.A. and PhD at the University of California at Davis, which he attended on a National Defense Educational Act fellowship. He has also received a C.A.P.S Fellowship from the New York State Council on the Arts, and two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. One of his novels, The Last Canyon, was nominated for the IMPAC Dublin Award, and another, Lucky Billy, was named a Southwest Book of the Year by the Arizona Historical Society. Two of his books, Peter Doyle and A Book of Reasons, were named New York Times Notable Books of the Year. He has been a Trustee for the Dickens Society, an Invited Guest at two Western Literature Association Conferences, and a panel member and Featured Guest at two Modern Language Association Conferences. In addition, he has lectured and read at various colleges, universities and writer’s conferences in America and Europe, and was a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome. After his PhD, Vernon first taught at the University of Utah then the State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University), where he was the twenty-first faculty member in the school’s history to be named a Distinguished Professor. He now lives in the mountains of northern Colorado and is affiliated with the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado. Married to the painter Ann Vernon, he is the father of two sons, Charles and Patrick.