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
