Bio


John W. Evans is the author of The Fight Journal (Rattle, forthcoming 2023), winner of the 2022 Rattle Chapbook Prize, and Should I Still Wish: A Memoir (University of Nebraska Press, 2017), Young Widower: A Memoir (University of Nebraska Press, 2014), and The Consolations: Poems (Trio House Press, 2014).

His books have won prizes including the the Rattle Chapbook Prize, the Peace Corps Writers Book Prize, a ForeWord Reviews Book Prize, the River Teeth Book Prize, the Sawtooth Poetry Prize, and the Trio Award. Should I Still Wish was selected by Poets and Writers magazine as a “new and noteworthy” title of January/February 2017, and is published in the American Lives Series.

His work appears or is forthcoming in The Missouri Review (2016 Editor’s Prize Finalist), Poets & Writers, Slate, Boston Review, ZYZZYVA, The Rumpus, The Flyfish Journal, Pangyrus, and Best American Essays 2011 (Honorable Mention), as well as the chapbooks, No Season (FWQ, 2011) and Zugzwang (RockSaw, 2009).

John is currently the Phyllis Draper Lecturer in Nonfiction at Stanford University, where he was previously a Jones Lecturer and a Wallace Stegner Fellow. At Stanford, John has been recognized as a “favorite professor” by the women’s basketball, water polo, and volleyball teams, as well as the Knight Fellows and the DCI Fellows. He lives in Northern California with his three young sons.

Academic Appointments


  • Lecturer, Creative Writing

2024-25 Courses


All Publications


  • Should I Still Wish: A Memoir The American Lives Series Evans , J. W. University of Nebraska Press. 2017
  • Young Widower: A Memoir The River Teeth Book Prize Series Evans, J. W. The University of Nebraska Press. 2014
  • The Consolations: Poems Trio Prize Series Evans, J. W. Trio House Press. 2014
  • HAPPY MICHIGAN QUARTERLY REVIEW Evans, J. W. 2010; 49 (2): 248
  • TUCK POINTING THREE MONTHS MICHIGAN QUARTERLY REVIEW Evans, J. W. 2010; 49 (2): 249