John Richard Saylor obtained his doctorate at Yale University, his masters degree at the University of Minnesota, and his bachelors degree at the State University of New York, Buffalo, all in mechanical engineering. He is currently a student in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Queens University in Charlotte

Saylor was a literary artist resident at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, N.M. and attended the Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop where he worked with New York Times science writer, George Johnson. He twice attended the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop with Steve Almond and with MacArthur Fellow Karen Russell. He has attended the Clemson University fiction workshop (ENGL 445) with Professor Keith Lee Morris and John Warner, the Emrys Writing Room (Greenville, South Carolina) with Scott Gould, and the Writer’s Center (Bethesda, Maryland) with Liz Poliner

Saylor lives in the upstate region of South Carolina where he works as a professor of mechanical engineering at Clemson University.