I publish under both my real name, John Griswold, and the pen name Oronte Churm. As Churm I write a column for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, a creative nonfiction superblog at Inside Higher Ed, 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. I’ve worked as a snake-wrangler at a state park, Army frogman, city bus driver, at-risk youth leader, manager of an ad agency, corporate writer, and freelancer. Since 2000 I’ve taught creative writing, literature, and rhetoric 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

All Content © 2008 John Griswold