ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Fully recovered from the practice of law, as well as turns in the corporate wheelhouse and several university adjunct appointments, John W. "Mac" MacIlroy began writing creatively in 2016. His first book, a co-authored collection of "mostly, mostly true" stories of a zany boyhood, was published in 2017: Not Exactly Rocket Scientists and Other Stories was featured on syndicated national radio, including iHeart Media's Unplugged and Totally Uncut, and a sequel is in the works. Tony Dow, who played "Wally Cleaver" on Leave It to Beaver, said of Rocket Scientists "What fun!" It was like hanging around with Lumpy, Eddie and the guys from the show," and best-selling author Pat Conroy called it "a great book about friendship."

Turning to short fiction, his stories have appeared in Short Fiction Break, Short Story America, Catfish Stew, Ebb & Flow, Reflections, and Y'all Magazine, which named his "Duke's" a "Best of 2019 Short Story." "The Man Inside" was a finalist in the 2021 Coker Fellowship in Fiction, as well as the Excellence in Southern Lowcountry Writing competition. His story "Three Buses" was named the winner of the 2021 Amy Munnell Prize.

With a sly take on the world-at-large, he is a frequent and entertaining guest at book signings, book clubs, workshops and festivals, and his support of the independent booksellers community was recognized in 2021 as an author member of the Book Industry Charitable Foundation Leadership Circle.

A graduate of Yale College, Harvard, and the University of Virginia School of Law, he lives along a Carolina tidal creek with his wife and a painted ceramic dodo named duMont.