Editor and writer

Hi, I'm John. I have more than three decades of experience as an editor and writer. As an independent book editor, I work for authors, literary agencies, and publishing houses. I am a senior editor at the San Francisco-based literary journal Zyzzyva, and I also edit for McSweeney’s Publishing and the literary travel magazine Stranger’s Guide. My writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and Literary Hub.

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From 2008 to 2019, I was the books editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, where I wrote, assigned, and edited thousands of pieces, including reviews, essays, and profiles.

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I have served on the jury panels of One City One Book: San Francisco Reads and the Commonwealth Club’s California Book Awards. I'm the recipient of the Friend of Independent Bookselling Award, from the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, and the Northern California Book Reviewers’ Recognition Award.

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In 2019 and 2020, I taught in the Master of Fine Arts in Writing program at the University of San Francisco.

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I am the curator of the Kenneth Baker Library, a book-donation project I created in memory of the art critic Kenneth Baker.

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A native of Boston—I was born a few blocks from Massachusetts Bay—I now live a few blocks from San Francisco Bay.

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