John Vercher lives in the Philadelphia region with his wife and two sons and has an MFA in Creative Writing from the Mountainview Master of Fine Arts program. John serves as an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of English & Philosophy at Drexel University and was the inaugural Wilma Dykeman writer-in-residence at UNC Asheville. His debut novel, Three-Fifths, was named one of the best books of the year by the Chicago Tribune and Booklist. His second novel, After the Lights Go Out, was named a Best Book of Summer 2022 by BookRiot and Publishers Weekly, and named a Booklist Editor’s Choice Best Book of 2022.
Jason Mott is the author of two poetry collections and four novels: The Returned, The Wonder of All Things, The Crossing, and Hell Of A Book. His first novel, The Returned, was a New York Times bestseller and was turned into a TV series that ran for two seasons. He has a BFA in Fiction and an MFA in Poetry, both from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. His poetry and fiction have appeared in various literary journals, and his fourth novel, Hell of a Book, was named the winner of the National Book Award for Fiction, 2021. Most recently, he was selected as a 2024 National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellow.