Jon Clinch is an American novelist and teacher. Originally from upstate Oneida, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, he graduated from Syracuse University

Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...

 and went on to teach American literature. Formerly creative director for various advertising agencies in the Philadelphia area, he now lives in Vermont. He has written stories which have been published in MSS magazine.

In February 2007 Random House

Random House

Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...

 published his first novel, Finn, a critically acclaimed backstory about "Pap Finn," Huckleberry Finn

Huckleberry Finn (character)

Huckleberry "Huck" Finn is a fictional character created by Mark Twain, who first appeared in the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and is the protagonist and narrator of its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He is 12 or 13 years old during the former and a year older at the time of the latter...

's father from Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...

's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel by Mark Twain, first published in England in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885. Commonly named among the Great American Novels, the work is among the first in major American literature to be written in the vernacular, characterized by...

(1884).

Named a American Library Association Notable Book, Finn was also named one of the best novels of 2007 by the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Christian Science Monitor and Book Sense. It was also shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle

National Book Critics Circle

The National Book Critics Circle is an American tax-exempt organization for active book reviewers. Its flagship is the National Book Critics Circle Award....

's first-ever Best Recommended List and the Sargent First Novel Prize.

Clinch's second novel, Kings of the Earth, was published by Random House in July 2010 to wide critical acclaim, and was named #1 on the annual summer reading list prepared by O, The Oprah Magazine

O, The Oprah Magazine

O: The Oprah Magazine, sometimes simply abbreviated to O, is a monthly magazine founded by Oprah Winfrey and Hearst Corporation.-Overview:...

.