John W. Bateman was the first person in his family to leave the fly-over states in more than 200 years. It didn't last. John writes and looks for stories in the Deep South. His work has appeared in places like The New Southern Fugitives, Electric Literature, The Santa Fe Writer’s Project Quarterly, Glitterwolf Magazine, Huffington Post, and others. He has a secret addiction to glitter and, contrary his southern roots, does NOT like sweet tea. John is a recipient of a 2018 Emerging Filmmaker Grant from the Mississippi Film Alliance. His first novel, Who Killed Buster Sparkle? released June 12, 2019, by Unsolicited Press and was a 2020 Nominee in Fiction by the Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters.