John Mauk began professional life as a rhetorical theorist, then later acknowledged his literary reflexes. His fiction has appeared in journals such as Salamander, Arts and Letters, The Forge, New Millennium Writings, Main Street Rag; his nonfiction in Rumpus, Beatrice.com, and Writer’s Digest. He has two full-length story collections, Field Notes for the Earthbound and Where All Things Flatten (April, 2024). He was elected professor of the year at two different colleges. Now, after twenty-four years of teaching, he hosts Prose from the Underground, an emerging video series for active writers.