Disclaimer: All writer profiles are user-generated content. We therefore take no responsibility for misleading, libelous or defamatory content, or any breaches of copyright.
|
|
| First Name | John |
| Last Name | Van Rys |
| Member Since | January 9, 2022 |
| johnvanrys61@gmail.com | |
| Phone | 905-229-9306 |
| Street | 5981 Rainham Road RR#9 |
| City | Dunnville |
| State | ON |
| Zipcode | N1A 2W8 |
| Country | Canada |
| Company | |
| Pen Name | |
| Branch Affiliation | Niagara |
| Website | http://johnvanrys.com/ |
| Blog | https://johnvanrys.substack.com/ |
| https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574942325795 | |
| Goodreads | |
| Bio | John Van Rys lives on a hobby farm outside Dunnville, Ontario, with his wife April, dogs, cats, horses, and free-run egg-laying hens, as well as two of his adult children, their partners, two granddaughters—and, just to keep things interesting, his mother-in-law. Before retiring in 2025, he spent 35 years as an English professor teaching literature and writing. He’s had short stories published in The New Quarterly, The Dalhousie Review, Agnes and True, Blank Spaces, and Solum Literary Journal. His story “Excavations” won the 2022 Prairie Fire MRB Short Fiction Contest. His first book-length collection, the story cycle Moonshine Promises, was published in 2021 by Wipf and Stock. His debut novel, Milksop, will be published by Chicken House Press in spring 2026. |
| Publications | Novel: Milksop. Chicken House Press, forthcoming spring 2026. Short Story: “Bandits.” Reprinted in Christian Environmentalism and Human Responsibility in the 21st Century: Questions of Stewardship and Accountability. Ed. Katherine Quinsey. Routledge, 2024: 87-100. Short Story: “Excavations.” Prairie Fire. Summer 2023: 7-16. Short Story: “Parking Spots.” Blank Spaces 0702 (December 2022): 49-52. Short Story: “The Homely Dreams of a Silly Soul.” Solum Literary Journal. Summer 2022: 27-68. https://www.solumpress.com/publications/p/solum-journal-summer-2022 Collection of linked stories: Moonshine Promises. Wipf and Stock, 2021. Short Story: “Nether Lands.” Blank Spaces. June 2021. Short Story: “Eggsistential Crisis.” Agnes & True. March 9, 2021. https://www.agnesandtrue.com/ Poem: “Egg Shells.” Dappled Things 15.2 (Pentecost 2020): 39-40. Short Story: “In the Hills and Valleys of Perche.” The Dalhousie Review 99.3 (Autumn 2019): 343-351. Poems: “Skin,” “Circumstantial Pomp.” The New Quarterly 148 (Fall 2018): 94-96. Short Story: “Dome.” The New Quarterly 147 (Summer 2018): 51-57. The College Writer (Cengage Learning) Write for Business (UpWrite Press) |
| Other Memberships | Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE) Christianity and Literature Study Group (CLSG), affiliated with ACCUTE The Word Guild |
| Awards | Word Award from the Word Guild for best short story: “The Homely Dreams of a Silly Soul,” September 2023 Canada Council for the Arts: Professional Development for Artists Grant, 2023-2024 Sabbatical, Redeemer University, August 1, 2022 – July 31, 2023 Prairie Fire McNally Robinson Booksellers 2022 Short Fiction Contest: First Prize for “Excavations” Word Award from the Word Guild for best short story: “Eggsistential Crisis,” September 2022 Longlist, Peter Hinchcliffe Short Fiction Award, The New Quarterly, for “Under the Honey Moon,” 2020 Award of Merit for poem “Den Creature,” Associated Church Press Awards, 1995 Honorable Mention for “The Half-Hearted Semi-Vegetarian Meditates on Bread,” Lyrical Iowa Contest, 1993 |
| Contests | |
| Genres | Academic, e-Book, Educational, Fiction, Humour & Entertainment, Poetry, Religion & Spirituality, Romance, Short Stories |
| Available For | Readings, Presentations, Workshops, Book Club Meetings, Speaking Engagements |
| Services Offered |