About the Author

John McCarthy is the author of Scared Violent Like Horses (Milkweed Editions, 2019), which was selected by Victoria Chang as the winner of the Jake Adam York Prize. He is also the author of one previous poetry collection, Ghost County (Midwestern Gothic Press, 2016), which was named a Best Poetry Book of 2016 by The Chicago Review of Books.

John’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in many journals, including 32 Poems, Alaska Quarterly Review, Cincinnati Review, Copper Nickel, Gettysburg Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Journal, New Ohio Review, Mid-American Review, Ninth Letter, North American Review, Pleiades, Quarterly West, TriQuarterly, and in anthologies such as Best New Poets 2015 and New Poetry from the Midwest 2017 and 2019.

Additionally, he was the 2016 winner of The Pinch Literary Award in Poetry, and his work has been featured on Poetry Daily. In 2019, the Chicago Guild Literary Complex, in honor of their 30th anniversary, named John one of “30 Writers to Watch.” John was recently featured on The Slowdown, a daily podcast, hosted by the U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón.

John frequently writes critical reviews, and his reviews have been featured in print and online in Kenyon Review, Colorado Review, Poetry Northwest, and Tupelo Quarterly, among other venues.

He holds a BA in Writing and Publishing from Benedictine University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He has received writing residencies from creative centers in Croatia, Ecuador, France, and Iceland. John currently lives in Illinois where he serves as Managing Editor for RHINO magazine.