Jonathan Penner is the author of the novels Going Blind (Simon and Schuster, 1975) and  Natural Order (Poseidon, 1990); the story collections Private Parties (University of Pittsburgh, 1983) and This Is My Voice  (Eastern Washington University, 2003); and The Intelligent Traveler's Guide to Chiribosco (Galileo, 1983), a novella.  His stories have been published in Harper's, Paris Review, and many other magazines.  His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and The New Republic.

Penner is a master teacher of writing workshops.  His past students include David Foster Wallace, Richard Russo, and many other writers with outstanding literary careers.  Holder of both the MFA and PhD degrees from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Penner was himself the student of John Updike, Bernard Malamud, Kurt Vonnegut, Angus Wilson, Antony Burgess, and Richard Yates.

His many prizes and awards include creative writing fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.  He has read and lectured nationwide and, under the auspices of the State Department, internationally.