Welcome!
I publish under both my real name, John Griswold, and the pen name Oronte Churm. My literary historical novel, A Democracy of Ghosts, was released last summer. The book portrays the intertwined lives of four fictional couples whose ambitions, self-doubts, and jealousies contribute to a great violence. Click here to buy it at Amazon, or get more details below. Thanks for taking a look!
At the end of 2009 my narrative nonfiction book, a brief history of the town where my novel is set, was published. It makes a good companion to the novel and covers decades of violence and mayhem in the Illinois county still known as “Bloody” Williamson. Most importantly to me, it traces the origins of deep feelings in one segment of the working class in America, which led to events that caused the entire nation to focus its gaze on this small Midwestern city, deemed “the most radical” of its time, more than once.
I also had an essay in W.W. Norton’s The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 3, edited by Lee Gutkind, in 2009. And an essay I published in Brevity was listed as notable in the 2009 Best American Nonrequired Reading, edited by Dave Eggers.
And new news: The University of Illinois Press has given me the go-ahead to put together an anthology of the best writing on the university since its founding.
Thanks for coming!