About John Vurro

John Vurro is an award-winning fiction writer, poet, and essayist from New Jersey.

His debut novel Play, Rewind (Tortoise Books, 2025) was shortlisted for The Masters Review Novel Excerpt Contest and named a finalist in Craft’s First Chapter Contest.

His essay “Guardians,” published in The Sun, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and selected as a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2025.

His fiction has appeared in The Literary Review, Eclipse, and Glint, and has received recognition including the Harpur Palate John Gardner Award for “Carmine’s War” and inclusion in Carve’s One to Watch series.

His chapbook Nocturnes was published by Bottlecap Press, and his poetry has appeared in Arrhythmia, Sugar House Review, Action, and Spectacle.

He is currently an adjunct professor at Monmouth University, where he earned his master’s degree in 2025.