About
John Vercher lives in the Philadelphia area with his wife and two sons. He holds a Bachelor’s in English from the University of Pittsburgh and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Mountainview Master of Fine Arts program. He has served as an adjunct faculty member at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia and as as an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of English & Philosophy at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, and is currently core faculty at Randolph College’s low-residency MFA program in Lynchburg, Virginia. John served as the inaugural Wilma Dykeman Writer-in-Residence at the University of North Carolina Asheville and is the ‘24-25 artist-in-residence in the Department of English at Monmouth University.
John has written for Cognoscenti, the thoughts and opinions page of WBUR Boston. Two of his essays published on race, identity, and parenting were featured by NPR, and he has appeared on WBUR’s Weekend Edition. His non-fiction work has also appeared in Entropy Magazine, CrimeReads, Booklist, LitHub, and Men’s Health. Additionally, he has appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air with Dave Davies and Weekend Edition Sunday with Lauren Frayer.
John’s debut novel, Three-Fifths, was named one of the best books of 2019 by the Chicago Tribune. In the U.K., Three-Fifths was named a Book of the Year by The Sunday Times, The Financial Times, and The Guardian. Rights to Three-Fifths have been sold in France, Japan, Spain, Brazil, Germany, Mainland China, and the U.K.
His second novel, After the Lights Go Out, was published by Soho Press on June 7, 2022. French, Swedish, German, and U.K. rights have also been sold. It’s been called “simply brilliant” by Publishers Weekly in a starred review and “shrewd and explosive” by The New York Times. BookRiot selected the novel as a 2022 Best Book of the Summer, Publishers Weekly included it in their Summer Reads 2022 list, and Booklist named it an Editors’ Choice in Adult Fiction for 2022.
In 2022, John signed a two-book deal with Celadon Books (a Macmillan division). The first, Devil Is Fine, was published June 18, 2024.
Devil Is Fine has received starred reviews from Booklist and BookPage, was named a Best New Book of the Summer by TIME Magazine and The Root, an Indie Next pick for July, one of the top ten books to add to your reading list in June by the Los Angeles Times, a June book pick by The Center for Fiction, one of the 12 Must-Read Books of June by The Chicago Review of Books, a Book of the Day for July by NPR, and was featured on NPR’s It’s Been A Minute.
Additionally, Devil Is Fine was named one of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 by TIME Magazine, a Best Novel of 2024 by Electric Lit, and was longlisted for the 2025 Aspen Words Literary Prize.
For literary representation, as well as film and television rights, please contact David Hale Smith of Inkwell Management at dhs@inkwellmanagement.com.
For lectures, speaking engagements, and other public appearances, please contact Trinity Ray of The Tuesday Agency at trinity@tuesdayagency.com.
John is a member of the Writers Guild of America (East).
Photo by Rafael Aguilera