I publish under both my real name, John Griswold, and the pen name Oronte Churm. As Churm I write a creative nonfiction superblog at Inside Higher Ed, a column for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and other things around the Net.

I was born in Saigon, Vietnam—on Ho Chi Minh’s birthday—but grew up in Southern Illinois, which provided the setting for my novel, A Democracy of Ghosts, and the background for my narrative nonfiction book, Herrin: The Brief History of an Infamous American City. I’ve worked as a snake-wrangler at a state park, U.S. Army frogman and deep-sea diver, production manager, corporate writer, and editor. Since 2000 I’ve taught creative writing and literature at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Thanks for coming. Drop me a line!

E-mail
griswold.john@gmail.com

No Bad Publicity, as They Say

• Interview at Smile Politely
• Interview at the Daily Illini
• Interview at LitPark
• Profile by the College of LAS, University of Illinois
• Article on the novel in the Courier-Independent
• A review of the novel in ForeWord Magazine
• Interview at The Southern Illinoisan
• A review of the novel by writer Thomas E. Kennedy
• Interview at ForeWord Reviews
• Interview at The Practicing Writer
• Radio interview at WBGZ, Alton, IL
• Announcement of winning the Delta Award
• Interview at NPR station WILL, Champaign, IL
• An interview in the Marion Daily Republican
• Novel written up at The Huffington Post
• ...and at Grist, the leading online environmental newspaper
• ...and at Red Room, "where the writers are"
• ...and at NYC's Indypendent
• The nonfiction book at Nightlife

All Content ©2010 John Griswold.