John DeSimone

About John DeSimone

John DeSimone is a novelist, memoirist and editor. He’s co-authored bestselling memoirs, including The Broken Circle: A Memoir of Escaping Afghanistan, and others. He taught writing as an adjunct professor at Biola University, and has worked as a freelance editor and writer for nearly twenty years. His novel, The Road to Delano (our review here), is a coming-of-age novel set during the Delano grape strike led by Cesar Chavez. BookSirens said, “It’s more than a little Steinbeck, in a good way. …” He lives in Claremont, CA.

Read our interview with the author here.

BOOKS:

Leonardo’s Chair (2005)

The Road to Delano (2020)

Your biggest literary influences:

John Steinbeck, Ken Follett, Howard Fast, John Jakes, Upton Sinclair, Herman Wouk, among others. 

The book that changed your life: 

To Kill a Mockingbird. I think it affected me in such a way emotionally that I became convinced that a story could have a profound effect on me as a reader, so that’s what I decided to do with my life, write strong, emotionally driven stories about the moral choices we have to make. 

Currently working on:

The sequel to The Road to Delano. 

Advice for aspiring authors:

Read more than you write; write every day, especially when you don’t feel like it. 

ARTICLES/REVIEWS:

Salt Lake Dirt interview