Born in Columbus, Ohio, Jon Thompson was educated at University College, Dublin where he received a BA in English Language and Literature and an MA in English and American Literature (with a thesis on Robert Creeley). He completed his PhD at LSU, and has taught at North Carolina State University ever since where he is now a Professor in the English Department. His first collection of poems was The Book of the Floating World (Parlor Press, 2007). His next book, published by Shearsman in 2009, was a collection of lyrical essays, After Paradise: Essays on the Fate of American Writing . He also provided an Introduction for D.H. Lawrence's Studies in Classic American Literature , in the Shearsman Classics series, which appeared in 2011. Thompson also edits the international online journal, Free Verse: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry & Poetics and Free Verse Editions, which now has over 30 titles on its list.