Jack Harrell

Jack Aaron Harrell (born November 23, 1961) is an American fiction writer, essayist, and English professor at Brigham Young University–Idaho.

Early life and education Harrell was raised in the small farming community of Parkersburg, Illinois. After high school, he moved to Vernal, Utah, where he was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He earned his bachelor's degree in English from Brigham Young University (1992), his master's degree in English from Illinois State University (1994), and his PhD in education from the University of Idaho (2006).

Career While studying at Brigham Young University in 1990, Harrell wrote his first short story, “A Sense of Order.” He began to write his novel Vernal Promises in a fiction class at Brigham Young University and won the Marilyn Brown Novel Award in 2000 for the unpublished manuscript. and won the Association for Mormon Letters Award for Criticism. His latest novel, Caldera Ridge, was published in July 2018. His short story, "The Boy Comes Home," was published by Wayfare in 2024 and won the AML award for Short Fiction.

In addition to his writing, Harrell served for five years as co-editor for Irreantum, the AML publication. Harrell has also served as the composition director in the English Department at Brigham Young University–Idaho, where he has taught since 1995.