John Kessel is a professor of English at North Carolina State University, where he serves as director of the Creative Writing program. He holds a B.A. in English and physics from the University of Rochester, and an M.A. and PhD in English from the University of Kansas. His novella ANOTHER ORPHAN received the 1982 Nebula Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, and his short story BUFFALO won the 1991 Theodore Sturgeon Award and the Locus Poll. His novels include FREEDOM BEACH, written in collaboration with James Patrick Kelly, and GOOD NEWS FROM OUTER SPACE, a finalist for the 1989 Nebula. His story collection, MEETING IN INFINITY, was named a notable book of 1992 by the New York Times Book Review. His play FAUSTFEATHERS won the 1994 Paul Green Playwrights’ Competition, and he plays a small role in the independent film THE DELICATE ART OF THE RIFLE. His novella STORIES FOR MEN received the 2002 James Tiptree, Jr. Award. Writer Kim Stanley Robinson has described Kessel’s most recent novel, CORRUPTING DR. NICE, as “the best time travel novel ever written” and Sci-Fi Weekly has called him “quite possibly the best short story writer working in science fiction today.”

His criticism has appeared in THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW, SCIENCE FICTION AGE, THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, and other publications. With Mark L. Van Name and Richard Butner, he has run the Sycamore Hill Writers’ Conference, which produced the anthology INTERSECTIONS. He lives with his wife and daughter in Raleigh, North Carolina.