John J. Clay­ton has taught mod­ern lit­er­a­ture and fic­tion writ­ing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mass­a­chu­setts, Amherst, and has been a vis­it­ing pro­fes­sor at Mt. Holyoke Col­lege and Hamp­shire Col­lege. He lives in west­ern Mass­a­chu­setts and Cape Cod.