John Woods grew up in Appalachian Ohio. He is the author of the novel, LADY CHEVY, and the collection of linked short stories, SOMETHING TENDER (with publisher Albin Michel in France). His fiction is set in The Ohio Valley and explores small-town despair and environmental decay. His writing is an intersection of literary noir and psychological horror. He has published short stories in the journals Meridian, Midwestern Gothic, Fiddleblack, and The Rag. He lives in Yorktown, Virginia. Praise for Lady Chevy: “Using stark imagery and evocative prose, Woods paints an unflinching portrait of small-town brutality and despair. Fans of Appalachian noir will be well satisfied.” (Publishers Weekly) “Woods’ accomplished but very dark novel about a town where violence is epidemic is an extended exercise in a kind of nihilism. It is unsettling and invites long thoughts about the world Amy inhabits.” (Booklist) "If Cormac McCarthy wrote women, he'd write them like Amy 'Chevy' Wirkner of Ohio. This is a stark, beautiful novel about a devastated land and its devastated people. From end to end, it's terrific, haunting and precise, deft and damning. A great new voice." (Tom Franklin, New York Times bestselling author of "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter" and "Poachers" ) "Lady Chevy is a compelling look at some of the bleaker realities of modern America, but the best thing about it is its humanity. John Woods writes with honesty and compassion about a young woman trying to survive in a dark and violent world. In doing so, he creates a heroine fit for our troubled times." (Jake Hinkson, author of "Dry County" ) "Reading Lady Chevy by John Woods reminds me of my first encounters with the work of William Gay, Larry Brown, and Donald Ray Pollock. It's poetic and visceral, full of characters I won't soon forget, the place deeply alive on the page. It's a book of great emotional power, a book that's built to last. Searing, humane, and truly haunting." (William Boyle, author of "Gravesend," "The Lonely Witness," and "A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself" ) "John Woods' Lady Chevy is a hard-bitten work of the heart. He knows his people and their widely-neglected corner of America, knows their language, undying hopes and relentless fears. And knows how to bring them all to energetic life on every page." (James Carlos Blake, author of "In the Rogue Blood," winner of the L.A. Times Book Prize )