約翰•加德納，美國現代派作傢，同時在學術領域也很有建樹，是著名作傢雷濛德•卡佛的老師。加德納一生創作瞭高達25本之多的暢銷書，同時他還在很多大學講授過創意寫作課程，其中包括奇科州立學院、本寜頓學院和紐約州立大學賓漢姆頓分校等。他所創作的小說《格倫德爾》、《陽光對話》以及《十月之光》堪稱當代經典。1982年，他在一場摩托車事故中不幸離世，享年49歲。

On Becoming a Novelist contains the wisdom accumulated during John Gardner's distinguished twenty-year career as a fiction writer and creative writing teacher. With elegance, humor, and sophistication, Gardner describes the life of a working novelist; warns what needs to be guarded against, both from within the writer and from without; and predicts what the writer can reasonably expect and what, in general, he or she cannot. "For a certain kind of person," Gardner writes, "nothing is more joyful or satisfying than the life of a novelist." But no other vocation, he is quick to add, is so fraught with professional and spiritual difficulties. Whether discussing the supposed value of writer's workshops, explaining the role of the novelist's agent and editor, or railing against the seductive fruits of literary elitism, On Becoming a Novelist is an indispensable, life-affirming handbook for anyone authentically called to the profession. "A miraculously detailed account of the creative process."-Anne Tyler, Baltimore Sun