John McCarthy

John McCarthy (he/him) is the author of Scared Violent Like Horses (Milkweed Editions, 2019), the winner of the Jake Adam York Prize. He is also the author of Ghost County (Midwestern Gothic Press, 2016), which was named a best poetry book of 2016 by the Chicago Review of Books.

McCarthy’s poems have appeared in 32 Poems, Alaska Quarterly Review, Best New Poets 2015, Gettysburg Review, Ninth Letter, Pleiades, and TriQuarterly. He was the winner of the 2016 Pinch Literary Award in poetry. In 2019, the Chicago Guild Literary Complex named him one of “30 Writers to Watch.” McCarthy’s work has been featured on The Slowdown and in Poetry Daily.

McCarthy’s reviews have been featured in TheKenyon Review, Colorado Review, Poetry Northwest, and Tupelo Quarterly, among other publications. He earned a BA in writing and publishing from Benedictine University and an MFA in creative writing from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He has received support from writing residencies in Croatia, Ecuador, France, and Iceland. He lives in Evanston, Illinois, where he serves as a managing editor for RHINO Poetry.