What’s your genre?
Creative Nonfiction
Are you published?
Traditional publisher
What inspired you to become a writer?
Although I didn’t seriously consider becoming a writer until college, I grew up with parents who valued literature and creativity. I don’t believe there was a surface in our house that didn’t have a book on it. As an undergraduate at the University of Iowa, I started out in the sciences but had the fortune of taking writing and literature courses with inspiring teachers. Ultimately, my turn toward writing was the result of those mentors, who believed in my talent—and my story—long before I did.
What author do you admire and how have they inspired your writing?
There are so many, but I think the one that made the most significant impact was Primo Levi, who I read as a sophomore in college in a course called “Quest for Human Destiny.” His book, Survival in Auschwitz, was not only the first serious work of nonfiction I’d ever read but also taught me that literature is more than words on a page. It is also an avenue for personal witness, social justice, and an ethical force that can change people from the inside out. It certainly changed me. Shortly after, I became a humanities major.
Name three of your favorite books and authors
Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi
The Immense Journey by Loren Eiseley
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
What’s one thing readers should know about you?
I am the sixth generation in my family raised in central/western Iowa. That matters deeply to me. Beyond my family, the most important commitment of my life and writing is to place, to home, specifically the people, prairies, and oaklands of Iowa and the Midwest.
What one piece of advice would you give a budding writer?
Write lovingly (and stubbornly) out of the experiences and passions of your own life, no matter how “ordinary” they may seem. Then, equally important, let that writing lead you into care, connection, and community with others.
Author Bio
John T. Price is the author of five books of creative nonfiction, including Man Killed by Pheasant and Other Kinships (DaCapo, 2008), Daddy Long Legs: The Natural Education of a Father (Shambhala, 2013), All is Leaf: Essays and Transformations (University of Iowa, 2022), and Goethe’s Oak: A Holocaust Story (Ice Cube, 2025). He is also editor of The Tallgrass Prairie Reader (University of Iowa, 2014). A recipient of a prose fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, his work has appeared in numerous journals, magazines, and newspapers. He teaches at The University of Nebraska at Omaha, where he directs the English Department’s Creative Nonfiction Writing Program. He lives with his family in the beautiful Loess Hills of western Iowa.
