Jack Harrell grew up in southeastern Illinois and moved west to Utah in 1981, where he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at age 21. His first book, Vernal Promises, won the Marilyn Brown Novel Award. He is the author of A Sense of Order and Other Stories, and Writing Ourselves: Essays on Creativity, Craft, and Mormonism. His latest book is the novel Caldera Ridge.
Harrell’s interests include classic rock and progressive metal music, bird watching, and the history of the English language. Harrell has been a writing teacher at BYU-Idaho since 1995.