John Milas is a writer from Illinois. His debut novel, THE MILITIA HOUSE (Henry Holt, 2023), was nominated for a 2023 Shirley Jackson Award, longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and additionally recognized by Indies Introduce, Indie Next, and The Audacious Book Club. He received a Walter E. Dakin fellowship to attend the Sewanee Writers’ Conference in 2024.
He has studied with writers such as Marianne Boruch, Roxane Gay, Brian Leung, Robert Lopez, Terese Marie Mailhot, Julie Price Pinkerton, Donald Platt, Sharon Solwitz, Jill McCorkle, and Maurice Carlos Ruffin. He is represented by Julia Kardon of HG Literary and Dana Spector of CAA.
In his local community, John periodically hosts workshops at his hometown library and judges creative writing contests. He has read submissions for literary magazines such as Sycamore Review and Ninth Letter and has completed various freelance assignments as a journalist and editor.
photos by Veronica Mullen
