About
I was born in Ohio, in a town just outside of Cleveland, a few days after Christmas 1963. My memories of Cleveland are of filthy snow, smoky bowling alleys and banged knees turned crusty-scabby. My family moved around a lot when I was a kid. We ended up dropping roots in Sarasota, Florida. I joined the army. I started out as a PFC in September 1987 and ended up—4 years, 2 months and 13 days later—a Spec-4. I spent a couple of years in the reserves, too.
My little sister Nancy was gunned down at a Pizza Hut restaurant in Brandon, Florida shortly after midnight on May 27, 1992—my mother's 56th birthday. As a result, my family disintegrated. It's all very tragic.
Somewhere in there, I went back to school and received an MFA from the University of Florida, where I studied under Harry Crews and Padgett Powell.
I've written a dozen novels, including Small Town Punk (Ig Publishing, 2007). My latest novel, Swing, Baby! Swing!, will be released late in 2025.
Featured Work
Small Town Punk
"Small Town Punk is full of raw feeling and taut smart prose. John Sheppard gets that Reagan-era rage and humor just right. This novel is an ode to those kids at the dead-end jobs who knew that the Morning in America was really dusk at best, but had each other, a little weed, some beer, and gas." —Sam Lipsyte
Trapped in dreary Sarasota, Florida in the early 1980s—during Reagan’s “Morning in America,”—going to high school with junior fascists by day, working at Pizza Hut by night, his family a dysfunctional nightmare, 17-year old Buzz Pepper feels that nothing matters in life beyond drinking, drugs and punk rock.
As the country around him is becoming more conservative and corporate, and adulthood seems like the ultimate corrupt existence, Buzz can only find solace within a close-knit group of fellow disillusioned teens, which includes his devoted younger sister, Sissy. As they drive around in Buzz’s beat-up van, encountering redneck cops, mocking the local “geezers,” and wondering if there is any meaning in what seems to be a meaningless world, Small Town Punk perfectly captures how it is to be young, yet feel that you have no future.
