John Surowiecki grew up in Meriden, Connecticut. His parents were factory workers and, later, bartenders (his father claimed to have served Judy Garland). He attended the University of Connecticut and received his BA and MA there (alas, he is a doctoral dropout). He has worked as a teacher, editor, journalist, copywriter, rewrite man, hotel reservationist, lathe operator, film critic, Teamster, busboy, and encyclopedia salesman (one day).

John is the author of five poetry collections — Martha Playing Wife Ball in Her Wedding Dress and Other Poems (Encircle, 2017), Flies (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2012), Barney and Gienka (CW Press, 2010), The Hat City after Men Stopped Wearing Hats (Word Works, 2007) and Watching Cartoons before Attending a Funeral (White Pine Press, 2003) — and seven chapbooks, including Missing Persons (winner of the 2016 Encircle Chapbook Prize). He is the recipient of the Poetry Foundation’s first Pegasus Award for verse drama for his play, My Nose and Me (A TragedyLite or TragiDelight in 33 Scenes). He’s also won the Washington Prize, the White Pine Prize, the Nimrod Pablo Neruda Prize, a Poetry Fellowship from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, and other awards. John’s novel, Pie Man, was awarded the 2017 winner of the The Nilsen Literary Prize for a First Novel. His work has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Carolina Review, Folio, Indiana Review, Margie, Oyez Review, Mississippi Review, Nimrod, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, Redivider, The Southern Review, West Branch, Yemassee and many other journals.