John Wray

Who is John Wray?

John Henderson, better known by his pen name John Wray, is a novelist and regular contributor to The New York Times Magazine. Born in Washington, D.C., of an American father and Austrian mother, he is a citizen of both countries. He grew up in Buffalo, New York, attended the Nichols School for his high school education, and then graduated from Oberlin College. He currently lives in Brooklyn.

Wray's first novel, The Right Hand of Sleep, received positive reviews and was awarded the Whiting Writers' Award. His second novel Canaan’s Tongue is based on the legend of the preacher John Murrell, described by Mark Twain in Life on the Mississippi. In connection with his second novel, he did a 600-mile tour by raft on the Mississippi River in 2005. In 2007 Wray was chosen by Granta magazine as one of the "Best of Young American Novelists".

His third novel, Lowboy, is narrated by 16-year-old William Heller, a schizophrenic who has just escaped a mental institution, in the flight through the subways of Manhattan.

Wray was also frontman of the Brooklyn band Marmalade, which released the album Beautiful Soup in 2003.