John Vercher

Y’all. Y’ALL. I cannot believe this. Thank you so much to @penfaulkner and huge congratulations to the nominees. I’m beyond honored to be on this list with you. Posted @withregram • @penfaulkner We are thrilled to announce the longlist of books for the 2025 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction! From these selections, the judges will choose five finalists to be announced in early March. The winning book—the “first among equals”—will be announced in April.

Longlisted for the 2025 Aspen Words Literary Prize, “Devil is Fine” is a gripping and thought-provoking novel that follows a biracial American author’s story from losing his teenage son to inheriting a former plantation passed down by the men on his white mother’s side of the family. The book digs into themes of identity, race and generational trauma. The author, John Vercher, lives in the Philadelphia region with his wife and two sons. He has a B.A. in English from the University of Pittsburgh and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Mountainview Master of Fine Arts program. John serves as an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of English & Philosophy at Drexel University and was the inaugural Wilma Dykeman writer-in-residence at the University of North Carolina, Asheville. His debut novel, “Three-Fifths,” was named one of the best books of the year by the Chicago Tribune and Booklist. It was nominated for the Edgar and Strand Magazine Critics’ Awards for Best First Novel. His second novel, “After the Lights Go Out,” called “shrewd and explosive” by The New York Times, was named a Best Book of Summer 2022 by BookRiot and Publishers Weekly, and named a Booklist Editor’s Choice Best Book of 2022. His most recent novel is “Devil is Fine.” Congratulations, @jverchwrites ! We announce the shortlist on Wednesday, March 12. #AspenLitPrize #devilisfine #literaryfiction #novel #literaryaward #bookstagram #amreading

Thank you, @inkwellmgmt ! Posted @withregram • @inkwellmgmt Congratulations to @jverchwrites ! DEVIL IS FINE has been longlisted for the 2025 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award! 🎉

Such a great event! Get @reshare_app • @hfu_mfa The Holy Family community extends their sincerest gratitude to @jverchwrites for coming out to be a part of our Distinguished Writers Series tonight! We thank you for your openness to discussions on grief, surrealism, dark humour, and what inspires your writing, as well as your advice for our next generations of creative writers✍️📚 ———————————————————————— In 2022, John signed a two-book deal with Celadon Books (a Macmillan division). The first, Devil Is Fine, was published June 18, 2024. Devil Is Fine has received starred reviews from Booklist and BookPage, was named a Best New Book of the Summer by TIME Magazine and The Root, an Indie Next pick for July, one of the top ten books to add to your reading list in June by the Los Angeles Times, a June book pick by The Center for Fiction, one of the 12 Must-Read Books of June by The Chicago Review of Books, a Book of the Day for July by NPR, and was featured on NPR’s It’s Been A Minute. Additionally, Devil Is Fine was named one of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 by TIME Magazine, a Best Novel of 2024 by Electric Lit, Jezebel, and The Chicago Public Library. Nominations include: Finalist for the Audie audiobooks award in literary fiction Finalist for the Library of Virginia’s Virginia Literary Prize Longlisted for the 2025 Aspen Words Literary Prize Longlisted for the Mark Twain American Voice Award in Literature Award Longlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. #hfumfa #distinguishedwriters #creativewriting

Installment #3 from @straybooks.co ! Can’t wait to dive into this one.

One week! Come through! Get @reshare_app • @hfu_mfa We’re excited to have @jverchwrites joining us for the spring edition of the HFU Distinguished Writers Series. The event is open to the public, and you can register for the zoom link here: https://explore.holyfamily.edu/register/?id=34847e48-1174-4495-a0f5-093cec576859 #fiction #writer #writing #writersofinstagram #writers event

Had a a fantastic time with @booksandbrews_phl this afternoon. Sold all my books and met some terrific readers and writers. Keep an eye out for more of their events in the region!

Excited and humbled to be part of the @hfu_mfa Distinguished Writers series. Event is open to the public. Hope to see you there! Get @reshare_app • @hfu_mfa We’re excited to have @jverchwrites joining us for the spring edition of the HFU Distinguished Writers Series. The event is open to the public, and you can register for the zoom link here: https://explore.holyfamily.edu/register/?id=34847e48-1174-4495-a0f5-093cec576859 #fiction #writer #writing #writersofinstagram #writers event

Second installment received. Thank you, @straybooks.co !

Y’all, I can’t tell you how excited I am to be on a panel with these icons. Hope to see you there. Get @reshare_app • @charlesdotsteph I hope you can join us at #AWP26 for “Crying Laughing: Black Authors on Writing Satire, Surrealism, and the Absurd.” Friday March 6th from 12:10-1:25pm This panel is going to be really incredible.

Don’t miss this event! Get @reshare_app • @thewriterscenter Home means many things to many people. It can be a source of comfort and familiarity. It can be serve as a connection to people we love and people we have lost. But home can also be a source of trauma, discomfort, or confusion. In this panel, John Vercher (author of Devil is Fine) and Tamar Shapiro (author of Restitution) will discuss how unfamiliar ancestral homes haunt the characters in their novels. How does family history shape identity and belonging? What does it mean to be connected to a family history one does not want to claim? How can the wounds caused by family secrets be healed? Register at writer.org - #LiteraryEvent #literaryfiction #literary #novels #writinganovel fictionbooks fictionwriter dcliteraryevents literaryevents writerscenter creativewriting dcwriters dcliterary dccreatives dcartists DCArts

Had an incredible time @hockessinbookshelf talking DEVIL IS FINE with their fantastic book group. Thank you for having me!