John Eppel was born in South Africa, and grew up in Zimbabwe. He teaches English at Christian Brothers College in Bulawayo. His first novel, D.G.G. Berry's The Great North Road, won the M-Net Prize in South Africa. His second novel, Hatchings, was short-listed for the M-Net Prize and was chosen for the series in the Times Literary Supplement on the most significant books to have come out of Africa. His book of poems, Spoils of War, won the Ingrid Jonker Prize. His other novels, The Giraffe Man, The Curse of the Ripe Tomato and The Holy Innocents, and poetry anthologies, Sonata for Matabeleland, Selected Poems: 1965-1995, and Songs My Country Taught Me, have received critical acclaim. He has also written two books, which combine his two distinct voices, the lyricist and the satirist: The Caruso of Colleen Bawn, and White Man Crawling. His children's play, ‘How the Elephant got His Trunk’, is due to be published in the near future. John was published in Writing Now (2005) and Laughing Now (2007). His latest short story collection, Absent: The English Teacher was published in (2009).