John Brandon

John Brandon is an American novelist born in Bradenton, Florida. Often described as a young writer working in the Southern Gothic tradition and citing Flannery O'Connor as an influence, he made his name with Arkansas (2009) and Citrus County (2010), the latter earning nominations for the Young Lions Fiction Award and the American Library Association's Alex Award. His novel A Million Heavens (2012) follows a small New Mexico town's interlocking lives after a boy falls into an inexplicable coma. Brandon holds degrees from the University of Florida and Washington University in St. Louis, has taught creative writing at several schools, and has also written on college football for GQ. His fiction favors small, off-center American towns and quietly strange premises played with a straight face.